Bringing out the clear Fir in the kitchen with a planer and saw.

After removing all the paint from all the trim in one bedroom and spending an eternity to accomplish that task I switched gears a bit.  After removing all the paint on one window's trim, I still had one window left.

I decided to act like the trim was damaged on the surface and was too much to salvage.  So I decided I would flip the boards over.  Now the plan was to use a wire wheel on a hand held tool to remove excess paint and working carefully I was able to do this to an extent.  It is very important to remove any over paint drips on the now new side and on all edges.

When this is done you can take a table saw and cut the very ends off.  In addition now you can rip both sides and remove any leftover paint etc.  You will now have boards that are a bit smaller than you started with, but this is usually not a problem.  After I did this I used my trusty belsaw planer/molder placing the painted surface down and planed a new clear clean surface off the fir trim.  Old Growth fir sure looks Sweet.  It is a shame so much of this wood is hiding under layers of paint in almost every house one can find it in.   And since I plan on Using American Clay on my walls in a month or so, it makes NO difference at all that the wood is a bit smaller than when it started its life out nearly a hundred years ago.

As I have in the past on projects I will use bioshield on the surface of the non painted surface of the fir to keep dirt and moisture out.  This may have to be repeated every few years, but it is really not much work for the joy that wood grain gives. 

The Photo shows the original painted (Copper penny color- every piece of trim in this house had this color UGH!!) upper panel that goes above the window frame.  On the right of that is the lower piece that goes below the window frame .

As this process is easy with the side pieces it is NOT with the ledge of the window.  Since in the sash type window this piece has a few levels to it it could be difficult to plane and cut so go old school on this piece, use solvents ( I use Soygel) or heat guns etc.  

Ill get through the rest of the kitchen in the month of Sept if my bad knee lets me.