Finishing

[Richard Thompson]

I am restoring a Kauri chest of drawers that was stained with a mahogany coloured stain. I have scraped, removed most of the stain but the end grain seems to have absorbed quantities of stain which floated out when I scrubbed it with metho.The stain also came out on the flat surfaces with metho.
Q. Is there any bleach that will neutralise a spirit based stain?
If I clean this stain off again would a lacquer finish float it out again?

[ubeaut]

To my knowlege there is no bleach that will fade the dye without affecting how a later stain or dye will react with the surface.

You will probably find that it will continue to bleed out into both lacquer and shellac. Your only option may be to re-dye the piece to match or enhanse what you already have and use a non compatible finish such as polyurethane.

Another option may be to use an oil stain over the exhisting dye. This will muddy the surface a little but will stop the bleeding problem if used with the right finish.

Hope this helps abit - Neil