Time marches on....Finishes decay... Varnish bubbles and turns black....And then I finally carve out some time to correct all of that, except for the time marching on bit....
Our house is basically 100 years old, or will be next year. Not sure if the interior trim had been worked with or refinished at all during that time, but it falls to us, the 3rd owners of the house, to straighten it out. I have two doors right behind my Front entrance Door, that are in dire need of some serious refinishing, along with the moulding or casing next to them.
Western Sun throughout the afternoon beats through the glass of my Front Door on these pieces, so I used one of Epifanes UV resistant varnishes instead of just Pratt & Lambert #38 varnish like I would normally for interior doors and trim stain finish work.
Stain is Old Masters Rich Mahogany Gel Stain, and Varnish is Epifanes RapidClear, 4 coats. The general thought is that the trim and wood veneer on the door are birch, which can be fussy to prevent blotching on, so I used MiniWax Wood Conditioner before applying the Gel Stain to help prevent that.
Worked for me much better than just rubbing on Oil Pigment stain like I had done a few years ago on nearby trim in the same area. I got lucky that the two different stains matched evenly enough for the most part since there is about 2-3 years spacing of me working in this small area of the house......
One door is done, removed and refinished just in one weekend. Granat abrasive ate up all that I threw at it, and my collection of sanders was always a treat to work the project through in a hurry as well.
It also helped that the backside of the door was in much better shape than the side facing the sun, so I was only working 1 side of the door.
This week when I start the larger door next to the one I just did, I will have to work both sides since that one leads into the house stairs proper and not just basement access like the narrow/28" wide door that first got refinished. The wider stair access door is 34" wide, and I'll post pictures of that door next weekend once I'm done with it.

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Some t-shirts, a hat, some free pencils,....... way, way, too many tools,...... 1 TOOLIE, (thanks RWeber!)but mostly, a satisfied customer

The ugly part...Before Pictures...

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Some t-shirts, a hat, some free pencils,....... way, way, too many tools,...... 1 TOOLIE, (thanks RWeber!)but mostly, a satisfied customer

The door....

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Some t-shirts, a hat, some free pencils,....... way, way, too many tools,...... 1 TOOLIE, (thanks RWeber!)but mostly, a satisfied customer

I used 4 sanders on this project, and two of them did the majority of stripping the old finish off. EC 125/3 and EC 150/5 loaded with Granat 60 or 80 grit ate through the old Varnish and Stain, even though the 125/3 is not really aggressive with just a 3mm orbit.
New style DTS 400 handled corners and RTS 400 reworked light sanding or one really tight spot on the wall trim. Vac was my MIDI for this one. It fits on stair landings easily and allows you to pass by it in a hurry, back and forth since its footprint is so small compared to my CT 26 and 36 Auto.
I like this picture of the two EC sanders side by side. Tell Tyler C. at Festool that I release the rights to it for their use in next years catalog...

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Some t-shirts, a hat, some free pencils,....... way, way, too many tools,...... 1 TOOLIE, (thanks RWeber!)but mostly, a satisfied customer

Old Original Wood hiding behind the removed door hardware. You can see the veneer on the door is cracking with age. Hopefully this refinishing prolongs its life...
Corners cleaned up with DTS, and then it was time to gently scrap the small profile sections of the panels with a Bahco scraper. I buy Beading Tool blank blade stock from Lee Valley and grind the best fitting profile I can manage on their excellent steel blades for something like this. The narrow blades fit the Bahco Scraper even though they weren't made it it.
And unlike the Carbide Blades that the Bahco comes with, at least with hardened steel blanks I can grind them with the grinding wheels I have.

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Some t-shirts, a hat, some free pencils,....... way, way, too many tools,...... 1 TOOLIE, (thanks RWeber!)but mostly, a satisfied customer

Wood Conditioner and Gel Stain applied.

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Some t-shirts, a hat, some free pencils,....... way, way, too many tools,...... 1 TOOLIE, (thanks RWeber!)but mostly, a satisfied customer

A coat of varnish, one of the last ones applied.

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Some t-shirts, a hat, some free pencils,....... way, way, too many tools,...... 1 TOOLIE, (thanks RWeber!)but mostly, a satisfied customer

So little casing that it went fast in sanding it. Filled nail holes after sinking a few a bit lower that were found by the Granat as I was sanding the wood.
I use Timbermate Wood Filler, really works well for me. This project got their' Mahogany' version since it matches the stain color I was using well enough not to stand up under the finished wood as an eyesore....

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Some t-shirts, a hat, some free pencils,....... way, way, too many tools,...... 1 TOOLIE, (thanks RWeber!)but mostly, a satisfied customer

All done. At least with this door... Not able to load more pictures for some reason right now, I'll have to try later on...
Still not able to add attachments/pictures....

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Some t-shirts, a hat, some free pencils,....... way, way, too many tools,...... 1 TOOLIE, (thanks RWeber!)but mostly, a satisfied customer

This looks really great, Callan! Nice job. Is this the same door you refinished a few years back? It looks almost charred in those first few pictures. I didn't realize that you mid-Westerners got actual sun!

Those sanders certainly did the trick. And your finish looks great - I'm sure the neighbors will appreciate it! Thanks for sharing!

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I don't have as many Festools as Fred. Or Marcou's, or Brese's, or Lie-Nielsen's, or Lee Valley's, or Blue Spruce's, or Harold and Saxon's, or...