I answered you over on another site but would add that you should use wooden scrapers to remove the gunk after stipping makes the finish all goopy. The big challenge is the areas with no extra wood at all- lock panels, etc. Be careful there and do not level, sand or flatten them till everything else is done. If you lose some wood there, everything will be standing out of the wood. I'd use a water soluble stripper and wash the stock really well. Stay away from steel wooll if you do hope to use nitric as you say. A burlap bag, a wad of tow, or an unraveled ball of cheap hemp twine will be good for removing goop after scraping goop off with a wooden scraper, popsicle stick, etc.