# Removing Paint from Oil Lamp



## artistkate (Oct 4, 2015)

Hey guys! I finally go into a house back in May, it was built in 1911 and still has a lot of old character to it. But the dump owners slipped paint over everything to make it "look nice". I'm currently working on my bedroom now that I have gotten bajor fixes taken care of. I'm going for a rustic look and really want to shine up the old oil lamp stands (I think that's what it is) but it doesn't come off the wall, so I'm not sure what to do about it. Any ideas? It clearly has layers of paint covering it.


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## bud16415 (Oct 4, 2015)

It should all come apart but at that age it might break in the process. Take some paint stripper to it a layer at a time and wire brush and dental pick. Slow going but it will clean up. I trust there is no gas still connected. I took a lot of them off of old places over the years and tossed them out. 

As a side note you can still buy them. Around here the Amish all use them. Light and heat in the house.


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## artistkate (Oct 5, 2015)

Do you think steel wool would work too?


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## nealtw (Oct 5, 2015)

I would try to figure out how to remove it to work on it. It was likely shiney brass and steel wool will scratch it. But we don't know what the condition was when it was first painted.


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## havasu (Oct 5, 2015)

I've never seen one. They are so cool!


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## nealtw (Oct 5, 2015)

They burned the coal gas  that was a bi-product of making coke out of coal. To use them now you have to adapt them for nateral gas.


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## havasu (Oct 5, 2015)

nealtw said:


> They burned the coal gas  that was a bi-product of making coke out of coal. To use them now you have to adapt them for nateral gas.



No kidding, huh? I thought they were all natural gas. Did the coal gas leave black marks on the wall and ceiling?


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## slownsteady (Oct 5, 2015)

Use a paint stripping gel at those points where it could be covering screws and at the joints. If you strip those, you could see how to disassemble it. If the parts don't look like they will come apart. you can work in place. Make sure to protect the floor underneath your work; the stuff is messy.


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## bud16415 (Oct 6, 2015)

We have a coke plant in town to this day. Not many left in the country. They burn their own byproduct gasses as part of their process as far as I know they never sold gas here. We have always had natural gas wells though going back 150 years. so farmers would sink a pipe and if they were lucky would hit low pressure gas and have some heat and lighting. The Amish still do it that way they might have a half dozen gas lights in a large social room and they will keep that room toasty warm. My first house had that ¼ pipe running thru all the walls when they electrified they put wires at all the same locations. 
The reflector that went on the light above the mantel you could put on two different ways to focus the heat and light or to spread it out.


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