cleaning oak surface

[james]

G'day
I hope someone can help with this. I have an oak table top I am about to restore that has a large ink stain in the middle, is there a way to remove or bleach the stain without affecting the timber. The top is french oak.

thanks in advcance.

[ubeaut]

Try soaking the stain with oxalic acid. Available from some echemists. The crystals are mixed in hot water until you get a saturate, then applied directly to the timber. This is a mild bleach that works pretty well with grey stains on oak.

You must make sure that the timber is thoroughly stripped of all the old finish before applying the acid, as it will not be able to penetrate into the timber otherwise.

There are more details on this in "A Polishers Handbook"

Hope this helps a bit.

Cheers - Neil

[rsser]

Would this technique also work to clean an area of low relief carving on oak Neil? It looks grey and doesn't appear to have much of a finish on it.

TIA,

Ern