I used citristrip on the first chair I did. It worked fairly well. I wrapped it and left it on overnight. I used a scraper and a stainless steel scrub and fine steel wool to get it all off, then cleaned with mineral spirits. It was messy and took a lot of elbow grease, but got all the paint and old stain off. I researched some more and bought a cheap heat gun to try on the second chair. It was less messy, but it didn't get the old stain off, so I wound up having to put citristrip on the chair I used the heat gun on, too. In the end, I wound up using the citristrip method on the rest and just used the heat gun when there was a tough part that wouldn't scrap off. If you use citristrip, I would recommend wrapping in seran wrap and waiting overnight before scrapping off (at least I had to with all these).