Expert: Eileen Cronk - 2/25/2008

Question
Hi!

I have golden oak stain (10+ years) for my fireplace mantle, and bought last week a chemical stripper (Citistrip) to stain it a dark walnut.  After following directions, I was able to remove what seems like just the poly coat, but the stain is still there!  Is it possible to chemically remove the stain down to the bare raw wood?  Or the layers are so deep, that only sanding will do.

Thanks!

Answer
Hi Karen
Nice to hear from you
Yes its possible to remove the color after stripping but its not necessary if you are going from golden oak to dark walnut on this oak mantle.
And as you suspect, the stain does penetrate into oak.
I also feel that a methylene chloride based stripper will remove more of the color than the Citristrip that you used.
Circa 1850 is such a stripper but there are others.
Wood bleach will also remove more color but I feel its not necessary in this case and not great to work with on vertical surfaces.
And keep in mind this wood will have darkened a good deal over the years and will never look the color of new oak.
Good Luck and great question
Regards
Eileen