Wood bannisters help

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Can anyone help please. What wood is this and what would it look like if we sanded it down to natural?

Looks like pine spindles but the darker might be mahogany? How old is your house?

Thanks for relying! I think it's Edwardian. I want to strip it all back but worried it'll look weird.

What are you expecting?
Maybe the spindles have been removed and dipped in the past? Hard to know. I don't think you will get an even colour if the varnish is removed

Looks like mahogany. Maybe someone replaced the staircase in the past but kept the newel post.?

Maybe strip then stain? Or I quite like this totally stripped back but would probably look weird with the mahogany

In my experience, completely stripping paint or varnish from newel post and each and every spindle is about 10 times as much work as you imagine.

Thats a lovely newel post. I would find the mismatch with the stairs irritating.

My suggestion would be, strip that, and the banister rail, and oil them.
Then clean, but not sand, the spindles, paint them with Zinsser Bin.The only paint in the universe that will stick properly to varnished wood without sanding it first.

The colour mismatch of the banister rail and the newel post? Once stripped, so your eye is drawn more to the grain of the wood, it might not matter so much. If it does, you could stain the banister rail darker ( although don't imagine you'll get a colour match-making that's v tricky).

The order must be strip, any staining, paint, then oil the newel post and rail - ( drip any oil and the paint will have a harder job sticking).

We work with antique furniture restoration, and the general rule is that you can take stain darker but never lighter. The wood will have absorbed so much of the colour over the years that the only real option would be painting over it.

Thanks so much, this is all really helpful. Didn't realise it was such a ball ache to strip individual spindles.

I'll start with null posts and handrails.

I would prime and paint the spindles and leave the rail and newell post or maybe use a tinted varnish to darken the rail. Stripping varnish is likely to be only partially successful.

Why only partially successful @wowfudge ?

Because varnish, especially old varnish, penetrates the top layers of wood. As it's not a flat surface, sanding evenly will be tricky anyway. Wood stripper is no longer as effective as it used to be due to changes in the laws relating to what can be put in them.

Ah ok thanks for clarifying! Do you think not worth bothering?

I wouldn't. I don't think you will get the effect you like.

We got our bannister and spindles professionally spray painted and left the Newell dark as had similar issue. It looked good. Might be worth getting a quote.

The newel post looks original whereas the rest of it looks like a later replacement so getting it to match won't work if you do strip it.

Thank you all for the advice. These are the other newel posts which weirdly look like they match the shape of the mahogany one.

I suppose they could have been bought to match. Any other ideas though?

I think someone bought a different colour newel post. Possibly only the rail is original. Have you seen inside any of the neighbours' houses? If they are of the same or similar design they may well have the original bannisters and you can compare yours to them.

Thanks again @wowfudge so the mahogany one was the different newel post? There's 3 up the stairs that all have the same shape.

If I panted the spindles and the newel posts would it look weird to try and achieve this effect with the handrail?

Sorry forgot pic

To me, it makes it look as though you've sanded but not oiled or varnished the wood. You could try it on part of it and see what you think of it? It's your home and your choice.

Thanks for being so helpful @wowfudge

I like the gold colour of the spindles. So would maybe paint the newel post and the rail.
If anything is coated with old fashioned shellac type of varnish it is v hard to remove.
Or have two tone stairs and stain or paint the rail a dark varnish to match the newel post.

When we moved into this house the hand rails and newel posts were dingy and dark. My step father suggested I clean i
them with wire wool and soapy water (ariel). It was beautiful oak underneath. Had just never been cleaned.

OP imo pine was a cheap wood designed to be painted. I'd paint them white. Or at the very least paint the spindles and clean/have repolished the handrail and newel post.

Yeah definitely thinking of painting the spindles. That's a definite.

I would try to strip the dark newel post first and see what you reveal. You might be able to match it approximately to the other two