We do this stuff for a living and we have our methods which work for us. There are other ways that other folks do things that work for them. We sometimes use chemical strippers, especially for areas with lots of details that would be difficult to scrape and sand. We use heat
guns and scrapers as well. We use carbon
steel
scrapers that can be kept very sharp by draw filing. They remove material better and cause less damage when sharp. We then sand. We vacuum the work and then blow it off with air and then wipe it down with denatured alcohol. This is a much less toxic solvent than acetone or lacquer thinner. We keep it in dish soap style squeeze bottles for easy use. The alcohol will help dry the
wood as well as remove surface contamination. When sanding teak the paper will load up very rapidly, just the nature of the beast. We blow the paper off with air and change paper regularly. Paper is
cheap, labor is not.
We don't like to apply
epoxy under a varnish finish. It makes
repairs of scratches and dings much harder to accomplish. And when the time comes that you have to
wood the
project again it will be that much more difficult and toxic.
We like
Interlux #96 gloss for exterior work and for
interior work we mostly use
Interlux #60 satin. We have used others but these are our preferences. We don't care for Epifanes at all, would just as soon smear the wood with peanut butter. Again just how we do it, some folks think that Epifanes is the gods' own nectar.
We also don't like the synthetics such as Awl Brite. There is no magic potion for beautiful
maintenance free brightwork. It's pretty and you have to pay for it, period.
One thing we notice is that everybody sees varnish which is someplace it doesn't belong. A brush mark or minor sag or holiday is not near as noticeable and is easily rectifiable with the next coat. So a good tape job is important. Rebecca's book was very useful to me when brightwork became part of my
livelihood
some 20+ years ago. I recommend it. Again these are our/my thoughts and there are certainly many who get results with other methods. David