RE: Paint Stripping

>I have not tried oven cleaner but it is wonderful for cleaning
>the glass
>front of our fire, and if it can handle that (wood tars?) paint should
>not be a problem.

Strong Oven cleaner is based on caustic soda (sodium hydroxide)
you can get sources of this in other cleaning products such as
drain cleaner or you can buy it from chemical suppliers and harware
stores
and use it directly.

Another good product is Ronstrip (there are most likely to be
US equivalents) this is a caustic soda based material that you apply
like a
soggy paste and it strips furniture and miniatures very well. You peel
off the paste and all the paint comes with it, this will go through
multiple
layers of ancient paint. Caustic soda is unlikely to be a solvent for
metal, plastic or resin so is a very good universal stripper. The usual
cautions
apply (goggles and gloves and ventilate).