removing stain from white oak

[Cheeky]

i have 2 white oak children's chairs that i'm refinishing. they have obviously been used for stepstools over the years and have developed some gray stains.

i've sanded the seat down, which revealed that the opaque gray stains are more than superficial.

what is your recommended techniqe for ridding the stains?

cheers

[cabinetman]

Since you don't know what they are makes it tricky. Some stains you could wipe with a clean rag and mineral spirits. Doing that you may risk saturating the stain deeper into the wood. If the wood is unfinished, and you've sanded it and still see the stains, you may have to use TSP (trisodium phosphate), it's like a bleach, that you have to neutralize when done. Or, try a stripper like "Citra Strip". It's a non MC based stripper that can be used indoors, and is water based.

This might sound a little whacky coming from a woodworker, but LOML came home from the grocery store with a cleaning sponge called "Magic Eraser". It looks like a sponge with coated surfaces. She swears by its ability to clean anything, especially stains. You might give it a try and see what happens.

[Cheeky]

Since you don't know what they are makes it tricky. Some stains you could wipe with a clean rag and mineral spirits. Doing that you may risk saturating the stain deeper into the wood. If the wood is unfinished, and you've sanded it and still see the stains, you may have to use TSP (trisodium phosphate), it's like a bleach, that you have to neutralize when done. Or, try a stripper like "Citra Strip". It's a non MC based stripper that can be used indoors, and is water based.

This might sound a little whacky coming from a woodworker, but LOML came home from the grocery store with a cleaning sponge called "Magic Eraser". It looks like a sponge with coated surfaces. She swears by its ability to clean anything, especially stains. You might give it a try and see what happens.

LOL, My mom enlightened me to those "magic erasers"....pretty impressive.

I actually stripped the chairs with Citra Strip. That stuff is great, my lungs are thanking me.

May have to look into TSP or oxalic acid.

thanks

[jlm]

Oxalic acid

I'd try oxalic acid. If the gray stains are from the wood oxidizing because the finish had worn off, that should help a lot. I found an old oak office chair in the trash that was still sturdy, but had gone gray everywhere the finish had rubbed off (which was most of the chair). It had obviously been left in the sun, or possibly even outside for a while. It was a mess. Took it apart, sanded it down, and washed everything a couple times with a weak oxalic acid solution, reassembled and refinished it, and it looks great.

[klefkow]

The only reasonable way in my opinion is to sand it all off. I was just in your position and tried all of the other ways to no avail.