Am restoring an old (1940’s?) drop-leaf table, and it is in good mechanical condition. The first thing I had to do was scrape off three layers of paint, then sand with 80 grit paper (random orbit sander). After this, I hand sanded some areas where the paint was stubborn.
After this work, I can see stains that are not easily removed by sand paper. Would appreciate any advice on how to treat or get rid of those stains. Am finishing with Watco Walnut. The species is either white oak or ash- not sure.
Replies
First and foremost, are you sure that it is solid and not veneer? Look very carefully and be sure. If it is veneer, you can easily and quickly sand through it and then you have a real mess that is difficult or impossible to recover from.
Either way, I would use the best chemical stripper you can find or send it out to a professional stripper to get it all off. I know consumer strippers are not as good as they used to be but, even if several applications are necessary, it better, quicker, safer than all of the scraping and sanding you are doing. When you get down to about what you show, apply more stripper and then brush with stiff bristles or even a very fine wire bristle brush to get down into the open grain to remove stain and finish there. Once you have gone as far as you can and there are still stains, try oxalic acid to see if that removes the stains. If not, then you may need to resort to a two part bleach (sometimes referred to as A-B bleach) https://www.amazon.com/Dalys-Wood-Bleach-Solution-Containing/dp/B01DL8REB0
Thank you for the advice. Yes, I checked - it is solid wood. Will give oxalic acid a try- just did some research on it and it looks promising.
Coupla things... the table looks to be red oak, a semi-premium stock for a table and an unlikely choice if the maker's intention was to paint it.
It probably had a clear finish that wore out and was stained (damaged) a long time ago. At some point somebody decided it was worth saving and tried to strip and refinish it (you mention no clear coat) before giving up and painting it.
Try the oxyacid, but my guess is no joy in the end, and a lasting blotchiness whatever you try short of a heavy glaze or gel stain.
If forced, my approach would be a coat of zinser dewaxed follwed by a dark gel stain and 3 coats of poly.
I don't really like loud oak so painting it again could be a winner.
Is there an easy way to tell red oak from white oak? Grain patterns?
As above, make sure it isn't veneer. I don't think it is, but you need to make sure.
My first fix would be oxalic acid. It's cheap, pretty benign, and easy to find. A good local paint or hardware store should have it. See how it does, and go from there.
Thank you - will try.
Please post results, even if not successful!
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled