varnish removal

[cd36777]

Hi All
what is the cleanest ,fastest way to remove varnish from a cabin sole.I want to completely strip it as I don't think I can do just little areas and make it look good Any neat tricks ? Heat? sanding ? chemicals ?
Thanks
Mike

[David van den Burgh]

I've had the best luck removing varnish from coaming, handrails, toerails, etc using a heat gun and a quality scraper. I don't see why it wouldn't work on the sole. I would sand only as a last resort.

[s2sailorlis]

A heat gun for sure, takes time but works well. Take care to ensure you don't burn the teak. Also, have read "cabinet" scrapers are the best to use, but one must ensure they are sharpened. I used a decent quality paint scraper, it worked OK.

[psjanker]

I've only sanded the teak but now that its been a year I have found sections that need to be redone. I spent a few hours prepping sections and redid the varnish but its not the same as when I resanded everything last summer and did it from bare wood. There are several sections with "dead" looking wood beneath the varnish. I figure I would go back and sand those sections more aggressively and re-varnish but am now considering using a heat gun. Does one scrape the varnish off after heating and then apply varnish or is some light sanding still needed? Can this be done for small areas or is for a complete redo... figuring getting build up would be difficult.

V/r

Pete

[cd36777]

Thanks you all for your input !