Drink ring water stain removal.

[Shedhand]

Hi all. My Ubeaut Polishing Handbook is packed away after my move and I can't find it.

I have a client with a Danish Teak dining table. Its finished with Danish Oil. Some guests recently (about a month ago she thinks) had dinner with her and put their drinks on the table without coasters and they left water stain rings behind. I've been tasked with repairing it. Can anyone tell me how best to restore the table top without sanding it right back to bare timber.
Thanks
Sheddie

[veritymcd]

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ewoodworkforums%2Ecom%2Fshowthread%2Ephp%3Ft%3D16463&share_tid=16463&share_fid=10646&share_type=t



I'm not sure if that link will work - it's the recipe for a restorer that may do the trick. I used it on my mother's MCM Parker table and it worked an absolute treat.

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[Xanthorrhoeas]

Some photos of just how bad the marks are would be helpful. Sometimes a very light abrasive, like cigarette ash, will remove slight marks. Really bad marks will need something more effective. I have successfully used the UBeaut EEE Ultrashine very fine abrasive wax to remove such marks as well as the Liberon brand furniture restorer (more expensive) but that was on French Polished furniture.

If it really is a Danish oil finish I would have expected it to have some reasonable resistance to water marks but am not expert on old Danish oil finishes. I use Rustins Danish oil to finish turned bowls and coasters and it has a high resistance to marks. If it does get marked (my wife left one such bowl full of salad in the fridge for a couple of days) I just clean it and apply another coat or two of Rustins. That works.

I have also found that water marks on an old shellac finish can be removed by a light coat of new dilute shellac applied with a polishing rubber.

There are many home-made cleaner/restorer recipes for cleaning old furniture. The one in verity's link is a fairly savage version because of the high metho content. It would tend to remove a French Polish or shellac finish. About 40 years ago an antique dealer told me about something he called Bristol Museum Mix. It is three equal parts of boiled Linseed oil, cheap vinegar and wood turpentine. Shake well - it forms an emulsion. Sometimes you can add a dash of metho but, as above, it dissolves shellac so care is needed. If you use it you need very good ventilation because, although wood turpentine ('natural' turpentine) smells lovely it damages your brain if you breathe too much of it.

[derekcohen]

Hi all. My Ubeaut Polishing Handbook is packed away after my move and I can't find it.

I have a client with a Danish Teak dining table. Its finished with Danish Oil. Some guests recently (about a month ago she thinks) had dinner with her and put their drinks on the table without coasters and they left water stain rings behind. I've been tasked with repairing it. Can anyone tell me how best to restore the table top without sanding it right back to bare timber.
Thanks
Sheddie

Sheddie ... STOP!

Do NOT use abrasives or polish until you try this first ....

The cause of a water ring is water getting under the finish. You just need to get the water out.

To do this, get out a hairdryer and play hot air over the water marks. It can take some time - 15 or so minutes - and watch that you keep the heat moving as you do not want to burn the wood. But, the water marks will slowly begin to disappear, and then go ... and what is great, the finish will be intact. Wax and you are done.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[RobbieB]

Or, if you don't want to risk heat, dump on a handful of silica gel desiccant and put a bowl over it upside down. Leave overnight. This gets water stains out of tenpin bowling approaches without damage.
Cheers, Robbie.

[eskimo]

another way is to rub the mark violently with your finger to create heat by friction. This will not affect the polish in anyway....takes some time but the mark should come out

[Shedhand]

another way is to rub the mark violently with your finger to create heat by friction. This will not affect the polish in anyway....takes some time but the mark should come out Yeah, thanks for the hint mate. When I actually eyeballed the job I found there were dozens of rings so stripped it back to bare timber and finished with Matt Wipe-on-poly. Came up a treat. Lady was so happy she paid me double what I quoted. :D:D