Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - veneer and oak chair

hi.i want to refinish this chair i bought.it is from the mid 30s. it looks like a phonechair without the desk on the side.my problem is that it has a inlay in the back of the chairand it is veneer on the back.is there a stripper i can use not to damage it.it is badly discolored on 1 section of the veneer....thanks......toi40

Toi:

I'm not aware of any retail stripper that will damage wood if used according to directions. There's always a chance the veneer may lift, but that's usually easily dealt with. Just take a standard electric clothes iron on medium heat and iron the vener back in place. The combination of heat and the iron pressure will normally reset any of the older veneers.

For the discoloration, you may have to bleach if it doesn't come off when you strip the piece. What I use is oxalic acid, available from any good paint store.

For a stripper, I prefer a semi-paste instead of a liquid. Some of the liquids are actually faster working, but the paste lets me put the stripper where I want it without having it run all over the place as liquids will do. This is especially useful on chairs that have a lot of surfaces, but small areas to work on.

Paste strippers allow you to work on vertical surfaces, also, because they don't run.

Here's a trick I use in my shop when stripping chairs. I save several of the #303 cans (the size used for 6 1/2 oz containers of tuna fish. I place one leg in each of these cans. They're shallow enough to let me work all the way to the bottom of the leg, but they contain any stripper that may run down the leg - keeps it off the floor and keeps you from stepping in it and tracking it who knows where.

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George T.

thanks for the speedy reply. ill let ya know.