I am preparing to tackle the restoration of our original 1852 staircase. It has some structural issues as well as very loose banister and balustrades, so I am going to hire a restoration carpenter to fix it up. In conjunction, I am looking to strip the decades of paint from the staircase, but probably not until next year.
Meanwhile.... My curiosity got to me, so I grabbed my Speedheater Cobra and, after a minute to warm up, I did this test area in less than a minute. It was super easy to get to wood in a single pull of the scraper (I know the bead will be a pain in the arse). It looks like pine to me, perhaps yellow pine? It also looks like there was a layer of shellac topped by only two or three coats of paint.
Thoughts?
First photo is where I did my test, second photo is location of test area for reference.
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/Vgr4NIx.jpg)
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/M6YxHAQ.jpg)