Doing things the hard way.

A couple of weekends back I decided to swap the Cinelli model 64 bars on my Gillott for a pair of deep drop model 66s, and while I was at it, replace the gold anodised Univesal brake levers with the ones that originally came with the bike. This should have been an easy Sunday evening job, until I decided that it was also a great idea to strip the anodising from the Cinelli 1a stem that I planned to use.
There is plenty of information on the internet about how to strip anodising easily with common household chemicals which I didn't have on hand, so it made perfect sense to do it with some strips of 120 grit emery tape. I got the anodising off in under 30 minutes, but rubbing out the marks left by the 120 grit took a couple of hours, using 280, 400 and then 800 grit wet & dry, before finishing it off on the polisher.
I'm pretty happy with the result, but next time I'll go to the supermarket and get me some industrial strength oven cleaner.