[Arran]

That's all I use to get paint off, paint and varnish remover, though sometimes it's difficult getting baked on enamel paint off of a Bakelite radio from the 1950s. With regard to the grain sometimes you run into a nice grain even in junk wood like poplar, if that's what they used, I doubt whether they would have wasted something like walnut on a cabinet they intended to paint but you never know. I would have thought that they would stick to a species of wood that is easy to cut and shape, maybe it's alder? I would be tempted to refinish it without the paint, even though it is not original, you can always paint over it at a later date.
Regards
Arran