varnishing bannister - uneven sanding finish

[alexg]

i've spent most of the day trying to strip back my bannister... having initially begun by sanding some of the bannister back to the raw pine, i realised (perhaps a little foresight would have helped here) that i would not be able to easily get to some of the parts with a sanding block...

... i therefore resorted to using nitromors which seems to have worked a treat...

the problem i now have is that most of the bannister is stripped of paint and is now down to the dark (almost walnut) original varnish/stain, but some parts are down to the raw pine beneath.

i have bought some walnut satin varnish (the darkest i could get in b&q) ... my question is... can i blend it all back in by building up coats (ie. would the exposed pine darken up to match), or do i have to try and work out a way to get the rest of the old stain/varnish off.

cheers.

 

[woodfinishes1877]

There's no doubt that for the best looking, even appearance, you really want to sand off all the old finishes and have a pine base that is uniform.

However, I understand that this may not be appealing and so you could try applying stain to the pine to match it with the old finish. Not sure what stained varnish you have bought but in my opinion it's always better to apply two seperate products, a stain and then a clear woodfinish.

Now that you have bought the stained varnish your best option is to try it out on an area that will not be noticed.

Hope this helps.

 

[alexg]

thanks for the reply.

the varnish i have bought is Ronseal Perfect Finish Varnish (Walnut finish) which comes with one of their 'Perfect Finish' applicator pads...

have i bought the wrong thing?

cheers

 

[woodfinishes1877]

It's not the way I would have gone (prefer staining first then overcoating with a clear coating) but it's well worth trying the product you've already bought.