Any tips on stripping varnish off old dining chairs?

[NorbertDentressangle]

I need to strip the varnish off some old Ercol style dining chairs. They can't be dipped so do I painstakingly sand them? Use some sort of varnish remover? If so which one?

I was just looking on the B&Q website at Nitromors which I remember using years ago but it only gets 1/5 in reviews so that sounds pretty useless.

One of the reviews of the Nitromors made me laugh though, it said "Absolutely useless, I'd happily bath my eyes in this and be confident of no issues at all. Mineral water strips paint better". Won't be using that then!

Are they the dark elm Ercol chairs? My experience is it's virtually impossible as the stain goes so deep. Have to admit I've just chalk painted three. I did do quite a lot of research first and concluded there isn't a good way and that the dark wood chairs have little value - it's the blonde ones that are in demand.

They're not actually Ercol ones, just that style, and thankfully they are the blonde ones so hopefully it won't be too much of a PITA.

Are you painting or re-staining? A light hand sanding should give them enough of a key for painting.

I removed the Orange varnish from a pine table recently using b and qs own version of nitro mors which worked ok.

Mairzy I'll probably oil or varnish them keeping them as pale and neutral as possible.

Fairy - I'll probably try something like that as it seems that the non-branded ones are no worse than the branded ones. What was the best thing for getting it off once you'd painted it on? Scraper? Wire wool?