[Alex van de Wetering]

I did try this on a CMP shovel; paint stripper and brass wire wheel, as well as (steel)wire wool and brass wire brush. For me it worked OK, but not as good as I thought.....the paint I tried to remove was quite hardened and embedded in the grain....the wood itselfs seemed a bit softer, so the wire wheel tended to eat into the wood faster than removing the paint. I remove those last flakes of paint with a scalpel and a set of dentists tools.

David; I guess the best you could do is try a small area and see if the wood is soft or not.