Sanding stone fireplace surround

[ElectronicFur]

Mrs Fur has been busy scraping paint of what we thought was a wood fireplace surround. She managed to melt the handle loose off the infrared paint stripper, as the heat reflected off the stone. Wondered why it took so long to heat up the paint

Can anyone tell me what type of stone this is, and the best approach to make it look good again? I'm guessing it is a type of sandstone and we were thinking of trying to sand it. Is that the right approach?

I did finally listen to the advice here and buy a Bosch sander and Festool CTL dust extractor last month ready for doing our wooden floors.

 

[Stevers]

This afternoon I have been removing yellow gloss paint from a Doulting Stone fireplace using Rustins 'Strypit' and that's working fairly well. Under the yellow paint were layers of cream, battleship grey and brown paint right into the pores of the stone. My stone is one of the Oolitic Limestones that run up through the heart of England from Portland through the Cotswolds to Lincolnolnshire. It looks like sandstone but isn't. Like my fireplace it's likely that your fireplace will be from a fairly local quarry, so it's probably down to what sort of stone would be available nearby.
[Edit]
'Strypit' appears to be the same sort of thing as Barrettine 'Paint Panther' that I've used before, and might be easier to find. I am doing this to the dismantled fireplace outside, so the fumes just an issue to the environment rather than me. I would add that the kindler, gentler, Nitromors 'Super Strip' (twice as powerful and up to 20 layers) made no impression at all, but as I've had little success with it ever, it has been hanging around for a very long time.

 

[malcolm]

It's probably sandstone in a fireplace surround.

Nicer to avoid abrasive stripping. There are chemical strippers that might get you past the last mile. Peelaway or Stripperspaintremovers are worth a Google. Though you are so close even the DIY store strippers will probably work.

 

[a twig]

Assuming you have suitable dust management in place, if the surface is damaged etc a very light touch with a "vanity disc" on an angle grinder will get you quickly back to a flat surface, but as others have said, if abrasives can be avoided then infinitely better.

The mortar gaps can be repointed using an NHL mortar with a very fine sand and using something very thin like a metal skewer or even the edge of a butter knife to push it in.

 

[ElectronicFur]

Thanks. The reason for wanting to sand it lightly is that the surface is damaged in places.