Expert: Eileen Cronk - 6/16/2008

Question
My daughter in law is refinishing the kitchen cupboards. She has removed the doors and went straight into sanding them down. This removed the paint and grease from previous owners. She is left with grease stains in the doors that were closest to the stove. The wood is light oak and the stains are quite dark. They want to keep the natural colour of the wood. How does she remove the grease before restaining them?

Answer
Hi Delayne
Nice to hear from you.
First off you cannot sand off a finish if you wish to restain.
The finish must be removed with paint stripper.
Much easier too than sanding off.
So try some paint stripper on this door first and see if the marks come out.
I really think these dark marks you describe are water damage not grease.
Any grease will come off with the stripper.
Here is the one I recommend for this job.
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=1694&familyN...
After the stripper if the marks are still there you will need to try wood bleach on them.
Keep me posted
Kind Regards
Eileen