I have a wood Normande radio, typical of the German piano key radios made in the late 1950's early '60's, with that thick, almost clear 'plastic' finish, that is cracking badly. I'd like to remove that clear finish, and wonder if anyone here has done it and how. I dabbed some Formby's finish remover on it, but it didn't do anything.

I believe that the amazingly thick finish on most late-50's-and-after German sets is a urethane varnish. I have refinished dozens of Euro sets (Nordmende, Blaupunkt, SABA, Telefunken, Philips, Graetz), some with the "piano finish" and some without, and semi-liquid paint stripper worked fine on every one; however, it may be necessary to make several "passes" since the stripper takes some time to work and this is best done on horizontal surfaces; so you have to strip in stages and turn the cabinet to get a horizontal work surface.

Formby's "finish restorer" works OK on shellac or lacquer-based finishes, but I find that it gives uneven results. This is probably OK on many large furniture pieces, but on a small, highly-finished object like a radio the results with it are a little on the crude side, to my way of thinking.

It takes as much as 30 minutes for even high-quality stripper to soften thick varnish, at which time you can scrape much of it off with a wideblade putty knife. A second application of the stripper will remove the residue; and a third application will remove the stain. I rinse with water to which a dab of dishwashing detergent has been added since this seems to be the most effective solvent for removing the stripper residue; but non-water-based "rinses" are available that won't raise the grain as much where later sanding might be problematic.

Thanks for the tips CV. I've started the process...looks like the stuff I have has to be on about 1 hour to get results, at least on the initial pass. Multiple passes will be needed to get the wood bare, as you mentioned.

One thing that I've noticed with many German sets is that the finish layer of veneer tends to be extremely thin, at least compared with most contemporary American sets. So, you can't get too crazy with the sandpaper after stripping, especially on edges.

Thanks for the tip on the veneer CV. I've got it 2/3 stripped of the clear coat, and should finish the last tonight. I'm amazed how much clear coat they used on the finish, based on all I've scraped off so far. I'm going to try to just clean it and then 0000 steel wool it smooth, and work a nice semi-gloss tung oil finish.