Grain Turned White After Aqua Coat Question

[Kbore]

After applying the last 2 coats of Grain sealer, and sanding a little of the vinyl sealer with it, I failed to blow the sanding dust off before a subsequent Aqua coat grain fill. This is on the mahogany neck. The deepest grains were white (after the last grain sealing). I wet the wood with naphtha and they disappeared. So I precede with lacquer. Now with 3 coats of lacquer, the grain is white, looks like crap. I'm about to decide to puts on the brakes and sand it all off, and redo it properly. Question is, how best to remove all that wood prep and lacquer to bare wood to start again. This will likely halt my finishing progress till spring.. What would you guys do?

P.s. Before the first coat of lacquer, after the vinyl sealer base, the white grain would not take dye.

[johnnparchem]

Can you strip it off with lacquer thinner? Otherwise a commercial stripper from the hardware store.

[Kbore]

Was thinking I would sand it off.
Lacquer thinner would take off the lacquer but not the water based grain filler.

[Diane Kauffmds]

I've used Ready Strip. It does a good job. There's no odor and it stays put, without running.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ready-Strip ... /100665911

[Kbore]

Could I sand it off or use cabinet scraper lightly ( or both)?

[MaineGeezer]

Sure, sanding is an on option. I think your scraper suggestion may be the better option though. I think the shavings from a scraper are easier to deal with than sanding dust.

Some sort of stripper would work, but I think the scraper would be less messy and about as fast.

It happens. I lost count of how many times I re-did the finish on the back of my first guitar.

[ruby@magpage.com]

Stripper would work quickly, then any water based filler could be taken out with, well, water (and a soft brush, like a toothbrush). Scraping would be preferable to sanding because it would go quicker - but you would still need to remove the filler.

Ed

[johnnparchem]

I switched to stripper when removing a finish. Generally I am at the final dimensions when I start finishing, it is very hard to sand off a finish including pore fill without sanding more than you want to in areas. I am sure you can get away with it on a neck, but you can really get in trouble sanding the finish off a top or even the rim of a guitar.

It is messy so I do mask all of the areas I want to keep the finish on. Even then I do not trust the tape to stop the stripper so I am careful with the applications leaving a bit a room on the edges of the stripped area. I also watch and immediately wipe off any inadvertent spills on the masked areas.

[ruby@magpage.com]

I had to strip a varnish finish and used the good ole toxic stripper to do it - happened in minutes. I filed the end of a putty knife flat so the arises (arisi?) were sharp, then everything comes off cleanly with very little cleanup to do. I used a scraper and 220 grit

Ed

[Kbore]

Thanks for all the replies. For the record, in an abundance of paint stripper avoidance, I tried another method, which did not work. I decided I would fill the white grains with the abisimal Behlen grain filler, died black. After a scuff sanding, Behlen Went on, and came off beautifully. It did not alter the white grain.

White grain is (likely) because I failed to blow out sanding dust while sealing the grain- I sealed the white sanding dust into the grain. So, not only measure twice, clean twice. I'll call it experience and move onto stripper.