Expert: Eileen Cronk - 3/16/2008

Question
I sent out the doors of my cherry cabinets to be stripped.  The finish was removed but not the stain.  Do I really have to sand them to get them down to bare wood? They are raised panels and I am groaning. ( I already sanded the cabinet bases down to bare wood and finsihed them with clear wipe-on poly and I like the look)  Also the doors had metal plates behind the handles and the wood that was behind the metal is lighter and even though I have sanded and sanded it still shows.  Do I have to keep sanding? How deep does that color variation go? Will the color variation even out on it's own over time?  If so how much time?
I amd a novice. I would appreciate any help.
Thanks
JoElla

Answer
Hi Joella
Nice to hear from you.
My gosh for a novice you have taken on a big job LOL.
While stripping wood removes some stain, it does not remove all of it as you found out. So there is no fault attatched to the strippers who did the job.
You obviously like the cherry wood with no stain so your only alternative is to bleach the wood.
There is just no way you or anyone could sand this color out.
Here is a site that I want you to read carefully before you start.
http://www.woodcentral.com/bparticles/woodbleach.shtml
Pay particular attention to the section thats headed "Color Removal"
as I feel this will be the cheapest route for a big job like this.
You will need to lightly sand after bleaching but not too much.
And always a test to determine if this is what you want.
I would do one door through to the final finish.
The bleach will help somewhat with the areas where the metal plate was and it may entirely disappear.
Good Luck
Regards
Eileen