I would start with a water based stripper, it's low odor and they do work well if you give them time, if the old finish is really thick you may need to do the stripper twice, after that it takes some sanding but not a whole lot, you can use an electric orbital sander the go over that by hand, be sure to ALWAYS go WITH the grain, once you sand across the grain it takes a lot of work to fix. good luck, we'd like to see it.