Sewar painted black

[Atlantia]

Originally Posted by Henk

Rick,

It depends how much rust is left. Actually i want to get rid of all the paint. In my opinion it is done by the previous owner out of greed, because i bought it at an auction house. It didn't work because i bought it for fish and chips.
Can you give me a hint how to work it out? Would like to do it as natural as possible.

Atlantia,
I cann't flake it off with my fingernail. Man, wished that was true...... Suppose the paint is a bit different, but removable.

On the metal TBH any chemical method within 'sensible reason' will 'melt' the paint before it touches the steel.
The wood is a very different matter. The 'patina' is made up of dirt/dust and skin grease combined with gentle compression of the wood fibres.
So, it's a case of how deeply/if the paint has seeped through this coating on the wood.
Acrylic tends to sit on the surface (if the surface is non porous) because it is water based. So the lack of solvents means it's often fairly easy to remove. The greasey coating acts as a barrier to the water based paint soaking in.

An oil based paint will be more of a problem.

On the upside, whatever the offending paint is, it IS black! So some faint traces in the deeper crevasses won't matter too much.

So, first try scraping it off with something slightly softer than the old wood of the hilt and harder than the paint. Like your finger nail.
If you are really getting nowhere with that, then the next phase is to chemically remove it.
So, Ricks suggestion would be first then Battaras, gradually trying harsher chemicals until something starts to move it. After those mentioned I'd go for turps or white spirit.
but as a word of caution, a dryer approach is best so you can control the chemicals dissolving the surface. A small amount of the chemical on a cloth and wiping the surface to get a black stain is preferable to soaking and getting it bubbling off. So basically not wet. just damp, so it never goes further than you want.
Now, whatever seems to work, use until you are getting somewhere, then make it more of a chore by lessening the surface area of the wiping until you are down to using cotton buds/Q-tips.
Basically, if you're using a solvent to remove the paint then it'll remove the patina as well,s o don't go over any area more than you have to.