I’ve used Citristrip to remove oil and lacquer finishes on 1950’s-60’s teak Scandinavian furniture for quite a few years, and have always had great results with it. However, I used it to strip the top and leaf sections of a teak dining table and had it react with the old finish in a way I have never observed before. After applying the Citristrip with a brush I covered the surface with a piece of visquine, which is my normal procedure, and let it sit for around 45 minutes. When I go to scrape the Citristrip and the old finish off with a plastic scraper, it had become like dark molasses, even though the original color of the finish was just a light honey color. The teak itself is now very dark after removing the stripper and old finish, and you can see in the images how dramatically it has changed from how it was originally on the leaf behind it. Rather than this darkening being caused by any oils in the Citristrip being imparted into the wood, it seems like it is the result of a chemical reaction between the Citristrip and the old finish, which appeared to be a satin lacquer of some kind that the Citristrip has now rendered into a dark brown colorant. I’ve stripped a lot of teak pieces like this one before using Citristrip, and never had anything happen that was even remotely like this. Any ideas of what might be going on?
Replies
First of all I think your probably right, it is a chemical reaction. Your probably going to end up doing the same thing to the rest of it. Second, I have been surprised many times using a product that I am familiar with and getting a completely unexpected result! I attribute this to the reformulation of many many products due to meeting new voc requirements. Same label but not exactly the same stuff! I always preferred the old strippers ,you know the stuff that was probably shortening your life, to the citrus products. The citrus I found to sometimes soften the wood fibers and really cause a mess. The old strippers gased off and evaporated, not absorbing into the wood as much.
Thanks. I had seen some complaints about the reformulation of Citristrip. I've had a box fan on the table all day, and it is showing signs of lightening, as if there was a high water content in the stripper. If that was a feature of the old formulation, I must have overlooked it somehow. It seems there is also more raised grain than I noticed using the product in the past. My hope is that I can do a light sanding when it is fully dry and still get an even finish result.
If you're looking for an alternative, I'm a fan of FranMar Soy Gel.
Thank you, I will look into it
I've had a box fan on the table for about 20 hours now and it looks like the pronounced darkening of the teak was from the moisture imparted by the stripper. I've never had the product do this in the past, and assume that it is the reformulation that caused this kind of effect. The wood still feels damp to the touch, so it is not something that evaporates quickly. My guess is that it has become more of a water based product in order to lessen the VOC content. It's a relief to at least see the color returning to something that is more normal.
It's good to know.
A friend with some chemistry background suggested that the ingredient on the Citristrip sds that would make it dry extremely slowly is probably Diethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether. My assumption that Citristrip contains water is probably not correct. It took a good 3-4 days to fully dry, but I believe I got a good result after a light 220 and 320 sanding followed by several Danish Oil applications. The initial effect of extreme darkening with red-brown coloration from the CitriStrip really threw me, and made me wonder if the piece had really been seriously messed up.
It looks great.
Hi, I wonder if the same thing just happened to me. I’m a novice but I can’t believe the change in color. Anything to do to ensure it doesn’t ruin the wood color? I’m not sure if I need to strip it again? See before and after
It can take a very long time for the Citristrip to evaporate. I found that once it does, the wood appearance went back to normal. Prior to that, the teak had taken on a very unnatural and dark color.
Thank you!
I'm an organic chemist as well as a woodworker. I went out and found the safety data sheet. The solvent for it is NMP (n-methylpyrolidione). It then contains a variety of dimethyl esters. None of these things will evaporate quickly. Just confirms what others have said.
http://ddtechsystems.com/uploads/3/4/9/1/34910359/citristrip_stripping_gel-msds.pdf
Way back when I took organic chemistry, my advisor, a biologist, told me "There are two kinds of students: those who hate organic chemistry, and those who haven't taken it yet."
Lol. I liked it so much I ended up getting a Ph.D. in it. Hard to explain how much it hooked me. I followed the professor at the small school around like a lost puppy. When he finally figured out that I liked o-chem (as if at 19 I had the words), he put me under his wing, gave me work to do, and I was happy as a clam. Oh, I also tell my students (I teach college chem one night a week because I find it fun), I'm really weird in that I really really really like 0-chem.
God bless you for it. I was not a huge fan.
I understand the caution taken to ban methylene chloride strippers in consumer size containers. It can be very dangerous if personal protection is not used. Methylene chloride boils at 104 deg F, so it is easy to breathe in without being aware you are becoming light headed. Professional shops can still purchase directly from a commercial supplier in 30 and 55 gal drums. Not sure about 5 gal size. So now we are left with slower acting strippers.