I have an old no-name bamboo rod that I would like to re-finish. What can I use to strip off the old varnish?
If the rod was finished with varnish, use denatured alcohol. Some old rods were finished with laquer and the alcohol won’t work so good. Paint stripper works pretty well too.
enjoy
fishbum
citrusstrip.
get it at lowes or home depot.
wipe on generously, let sit for an hour. then remove w/ green abrasive pad.
repeat as neessary.
I’m also trying this Citrusstrip. Do you know of problem affects on the glued seams?
I, too asked for advice about using chemical strippers and got the response to not even think about it on a bamboo, that it could destroy the glue. So I very carefully scraped it off with a blade, gently removing only the finish, not the layers of bamboo. Check back in this forum to about October/November for my saga. Some very good info.
I have used the citrus stripper on a lot of bamboo rods with no ill effects whatsoever. I never leave it on there over like 20 minutes though, no real reason to on rods originally finished with varnish. 20 minutes and it is absolute paste. remove the residue with a 3m pad, wash it down with denatured alcohol, and you are ready to begin cleanup/fixup