Removing Briwax from doors to put Osmo Door Oil? Worth it?

kaboo

Hi everyone,
Back with the next challenge in the redecoration of our new home.... We have 8 original oak doors in my new home. These are from 1930s that were stripped off paint by the previous residents and then treated by Briwax. I think they look quite grubby after 7 years of use, especially the kitchen and bathroom doors and need a clean+refresh. In some areas you can even see quite a bit of wax splotches...

Over the years we have preferred using Osmo oil for everything related to wood. Just because its so easy to apply and maintain. So we were thinking to remove Briwax and apply Osmo Door Oil. For that Osmo tech support advised removing Briwax with spirits and then lightly sand. It will be a lot of work to remove Briwax from 8 doors amid the full internal redecoration (except the floors) for a 4 bed semi that we are doing on our own... So here are my questions and would love to have some advice.
1. Since its going to be significant amount of work - is it better to just refresh Briwax? Will it be easier?
2. How durable and protective is Briwax compared to Osmo? We have no experience with any other finish!
3. If we do end up deciding Osmo, would stripping Briwax with White/Methylated spirit cause damage to the oak veneer panels on the door?

Look forward to your suggestions. 

Norman_Castle

"would stripping Briwax with White/Methylated spirit cause damage to the oak veneer panels on the door?"

No. No need to saturate the door, meths will evaporate quickly.

Never tried it but could be an option. https://www.screwfix.com/p/liberon-wax-polish-remover-clear-500ml/5854f

kaboo

Thanks Norman, will have a look at it. What about sugar soap - would that get rid of wax? It might raise some grain but if Oak is not as bad then I can sand it after wards!?!?

Norman_Castle

I wouldn't use sugar soap as its water based. It might remove the wax but its likely to create more work.

kaboo

Hey everyone, just wanted to update in case someone else is looking for information.

We scrubbed the doors down with medium-fine grade steel wool dipped in clear methylated spirit. Took a while but worked. But since these doors are old and pine, it was very easy to break splinter off. So had to work carefully along the grain and wear thick gloves. 

Then we applied two thin coats of Osmo Door Oil Raw, which is supposed to not give that darker-wet look effect. But it still did, definitely darkened the doors but not as much as the clear PolyX product. Luckily thats the look that missus had wanted anyway (took a lot of convincing to go for raw oil and it didn't matter in the end ) so no problem. 3 doors done 4 more to go!

Bendy_House

That's for the report, kaboo.

Any chance of some photos?!  

As far as I know, there simply isn't a wax/oil/varnish/finishing product that you can apply to wood that won't darken it to some degree. Water-based varnishes tend to keep it lighter than oil-based, and all the oils also have varying degrees of darkening and yellowing.

The only thing I've seen that claims to not darken the tone is a white-pigmented varnish, but that would appear to be adding an artificial lightening effect on top.

starving_artist

I've used https://www.protekwoodstain.co.uk/clear-coats/tough-coat-clear  and found it makes minimal difference to the colour and is completely matt.

kaboo

Bendy_House said:

That's for the report, kaboo.

Any chance of some photos?!  

As far as I know, there simply isn't a wax/oil/varnish/finishing product that you can apply to wood that won't darken it to some degree. Water-based varnishes tend to keep it lighter than oil-based, and all the oils also have varying degrees of darkening and yellowing.

The only thing I've seen that claims to not darken the tone is a white-pigmented varnish, but that would appear to be adding an artificial lightening effect on top.

Cheers Bendy_House. Here is a photo. Also anyone planning to scrub pine doors with steel wool, plz plz plz use garden gloves. I was wearing two gloves - one diposable and one reusable kitchen gloves which are thick-ish. Still got a 2 inch splinter break off and pierce the steel wool pad, both the gloves and my little finger - still healing from that. 

And second that any product would change the colour of the wood. Osmo tech support advised that raw door oil shouldn't and perhaps am not applying enough. I did try on a small hidden section, and it looks like super artificial like... too much make up