I did it, on a banister that hadn't been refinished since 1924. I thought I was going to still be doing it, until the day I died. I'd love to give you advice but the trauma has affected my memory. What I can remember is: - Sanding to death. You need to waste a lot of money at the sandpaper store, not only because you have to keep decreasing grit (I started rough, taking off thick old varnish) but you'll need to experiment with various sanding sponges and other doo-dads to find one that fits into the little intricate details. - Dampening and re-sanding - Applying a wood conditioner. I was staining oak. One thing to understand about a staircase like the one in the Centsational (that name!) blog is that the surface is many different grains of wood--edge, end--depending on where the curve hits it. You want these to blend. - Staining; I think I used Zar and it was plenty dark. Don't rub off too much - Dewaxed shellac; I wanted to use a water-based poly (long story) so I needed a barrier between the oil based stain and the water-based poly - Wipe-on poly. Here I either would've used something different or done more coats. Other work was going on in the house, though, so my work got cut off. HTH.

Removing an old finish by sanding, unless you are taking off a lot (like a floor re-sanding), is an extremely poor way to do it. It will not uniformly remove the old finish (from the pores) and can easily result in an uneven finish when staining. I'd recommend a chemical stripper done carefully with masking off areas not being stripped. The "wood conditioners" don't work all that well. They tend to work a bit better if you ignore the label directions and let them dry overnight instead of the less than 30 minutes (or whatever the label suggests). A better approach would be to use a good quality gel stain. There are other "wash coats" that you can use such as 5% solids shellac, hide glue, or other sealers based on your intended top coat. But these are more complicated to find than just grabbing a gel stain off the shelf. Almost all things with Tung Oil on the label are called "Tung Oil Finish" because they somewhat resemble tung oil. In fact, most of them are not tung oil, nor do they contain any tung oil in natural form or as a component of manufacture. Depending upon brand, it's either an linseed oil & oil-based varnish (typically alkyd or urethane) blend or a varnish, both of which are highly thinned (up to 70%) with paint thinner to make it a wiping finish. It's not that oil-varnish blends or thinned varnishes are bad finishes. They have their place. But what you are reading on the label is pure marketing fabrication. Pure oil finishes are very poor in excluding moisture (some are actually hygroscopic). The more percentage of oil in the oil-varnish blend, the less water resistance the resulting finish will have. A 100% oil finish will be an in-the-wood finish and will not have the protection that a varnish will. Hand-oil on a handrail needs periodic cleaning. Oil-only won't be working in your favor. Every true Tung Oil I have ever seen will say something like 100% tung oil and will not have any thinners that can be labeled mineral spirits, stoddard solvent, naphtha, [light]aromatic hydrocarbons, some other alias, or refer to the CAS number for the above on the MSDS, or very rarely, on the label. In my opinion, there is little reason to use pure tung oil. It's more expensive, looks identical to linseed oil, more difficult to apply, and if you don't do it right, sand between all coats, and have enough curing between coats, you get white spots that are irreversible and need to be stripped off. (See, KW, I do know what a "pre-stain" wood conditioner is.)

I like the first one in the second grouping. The top of the newel post looks a little darker. It looks wonderful with the lighter floor. I also wouldn't worry about the spindles, I think yours are lovely, I have a lot of mission stuff in my house mixed with Traditional and it looks good to me. The goose...I know you didn't ask, but here's some staining advise. Try mixing Minwax English Chestnut and Minwax golden Pecan buy the smallest cans (oil based) start with 3 parts English Chestnut and 1 part Golden Pecan, and adjust from there...if you want it darker add more Chestnut, if you want it lighter add more Pecan... Your newel post looks to be either cherry or Quarter-sawn white oak...when trying the stain on your wood sample scraps be sure to try it on the same wood as your newel post. If you're interested, I can show you samples of this stain on wood pieces in my house, it looks very much like the color squirrel posted in the first photo. Joann

I’m not the OP but this question relates to my current dilemma. We are replacing treads on stairs and the “discussion” is stuck on the risers. Should they be stained to match or painted white. I have seen both but it seems more recent design is going with stained risers. Since the last time we tried to redo these stairs was 13 years ago and we couldn’t agree on a lot of things and scrapped the project, I don’t want to get stuck again. The pics are of our staircase ripped out carpeting, a pic with stained risers, and a pic with painted risers. Since we are going through the work and expense, I want to make sure we aren’t putting in dated design from the get go. The other point we are discussing is wood spindles vs metal.