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Help! I've ruined my oak table


Beryl
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I have an oak table and 'someone' put a plug in air freshener on it and it has leaked onto the table unnoticed and taken off a layer of something, exposing lighter wood underneath.

Any ideas to make it look a little less noticeable? I don't want to strip and varnish etc, is there a polish that I can rub in that I can get in France?

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Others will know a lot more about this but it is its natural colour really, age and use - all sorts of stuff in the atmosphere - do darken oak over time.  You should see the difference between my new oak beam and all the old ones!  But where little chunks have got knocked out of the ancient stuff, they look pretty much alike to me.
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hi

        ok are you sure it`s oak !!!! it does make a difference on how to treat it, because it looks like pine to me ? the growth rings  look too far apart for oak , and who would stain oak that colour ?

 this is not meant to be an  offensive  reply

                          dave

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None taken.

It was advertised as oak [:D] I don't know what colour oak furniture should be.

I bought this because I thought it would be solid and I was fed up with bits falling off my old veneered furniture everytime I bumped the hoover into it!

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Sorry Beryl, but I have t agree with Dave. It does look like pine... Does it have a 'hard' feel to it or does it feel a bit more silkie? Sorry, difficult to put a 'feel' into words. But it is importaint, because if it is a varnish it will be a totally different way to treat it than if it is a wax or wax mix finish. Varnish will feel quite hard and plasticky. An oil base should feel more soft and silky.
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I have had pine furniture in the past and it has been quite soft and easy to mark, this wood whatever it is, isn't.

The wood feels very smooth and I didn't think it had been varnished at all , so I was really surprised when it changed colour. It is not shiny, glossy and it doesn't have a thick feel to it.

I really thought that this was the colour through and through [:(] The picture is a fair likeness but a little darker and the white stain is a little more severe looking than in real life.

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Beryl, bad luck with your mishap. As some have said on here, it's difficult to diagnose the problem without actually seeing the damage for real. Not sure where you live but seek out a restorer in your area and ask for some advice and perhaps a quote.

This is a photo of a section of our table and is Oak, if previous comments have caused you any doubts as to what the wood is. It should be very heavy, our table is 2.5 metres by 1 metre and took six men to lift it into the house.

[IMG]http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p211/Bugbear2/Oaktable.jpg[/IMG]

Good luck, hope you get it sorted.

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I'm not at all convinced it's not Oak Beryl. The timber looks quarter sawn to me, which would give the grain that appearance. The Oak may be fast grown or even Red Oak.

Why don't you start by getting some course wire wool and rubbing down the affected area and then look for a wax stain that is slightly lighter than the overall finish, try it underneath to start with, let the stain dry and put some oil over that, it will darken slightly again. Ok the process might turn out to be a little costly and it's trial and error but as I've said, it's just not my area.

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Hi

The problem you have is that the leakage has taken off the lacquer finish which contains the colour as well.

It,s a modern method of spray finishing furniture which saves time and money in so much as rather than stain the timber the traditional way with a water or oil stain leave it to dry and then apply the lacquer finish what has been done here is that the lacquer actuall y contains the colour or stain and is sprayed on in one go. This is ok untill you accidentally remove the finish which also removes the colour as well.

If you apply a stain to the timber it will take on a completely different appearance to the existing finish because you are appliying stain to the timber. Not a good idea.

What you need to do is to seal the timber with a colourless basecoat or lacquer and then apply a oil based stain on top. This may take several applications and may not even come close to what you want but trust me it's the only way to approach it, or put a plant over it.

Tom

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I had to repair a mahogany veneered table that had the same damage and turned out to have a similar "colored lacquer" finish.

I did what has already been suggested and used a stain that was very close to the colour (although this cannot really be verified until after the varnish is put on) and then finished with two or 3 coats of clear varnish (hand flatted between coats) until the colour matched.

It looks okay but the patch has a much smoother shinier finish owing to the extra coats of varnish and polishing, the original finish was probably only one coat and the texture of the grain can be seen and felt through it, the repaired patch whilst a good colour match looks more like French polished.

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  • 2 months later...
It is hard to tell from the photograph but if it is "Crown cut" the grain can have a wide figure. "Quarter sawn" gives the closer figure you are thinking of. For my part I have got my tired old peepers as close to the snap as I can and it does look like an "Open grain" timber which would say Oak to me. The tint little black linear flecks look pretty convincing to me. Agreed the colour is off but - what camera? What happened over the internet?

If the finish is laquer there is a technique using methylated spirits which requires that you "pool" it over the mark and set it alight. The heat melts the laquer back into shape and some fine finishing - no one would ever know! Hmm, brave though!

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