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I recently refinished a mahogany entry way in Denver, Colorado. As you can see in the last picture, the finish was in rough shape. Somebody actually tried to brush on a red mahogany stain over a clear varnish which looked horrible. I managed to strip the door sand it and restain and varnish it.

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Come up to Fort COllins. I need a door like that.
 

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Great job and nice save to a real beauty.
 

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thanks guys. I am glad that other people like it too. Josh, i am happy to come up to ft Collins and refinish your door ;-)
 

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Oh man.. I have the exact same situation going on with my front door though mine look a little worse for wear than yours. Id love to here the exact techniques and products you used to get that finish looking as good as you did. I thought about chemically stripping but ruled that out as I don't want my door to swell from moisture absorption. How did you get around this?

Thanks

Scott
 

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Hi Scott,

unfortunately this is not my door. I do this for a living. I did use a chemical stripper to get rid of the old finish, just make sure you let it dry for a day and than sand it. Use a pigment stain because it holds up better than dye stains. Than finish it off with a durable exterior varnish. Normally it takes me 5-6 days from start to finish but this particular door took about 12 days because i still ran into some problems with the old finish.
 

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Thanks for the tips. I now see what my mistake in the past has been. After stripping I hosed doors down with water to get rid of the stripper. So you're saying to just scrape as much of the stripper off the door as you can then let it dry thoroughly and hit it with some sand paper. Thanks, I'll give it a try. My wife wants me to paint the door but what woodworker has the goombas to do that?
 

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they sell an afterwash you can use to get rid of the sticky stuff or use mineral spirits, that works too
 
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