My Shaker Hall Table that I had placed against the wall in the kitchen became a final resting spot for some items. The ones that caused the problem was a Sheave of Wheat which had been died dark brown., a fish bowl, a wicker basket that had honey and syrup placed in it.
The table top looked like this.
The gray stains were the syrup and it had gone below th surface because water wouldn’t clean it up. I was contemplating running it through the plainer again, but I opted for the sander first. Hitting it with 100 grit made it go away.
The original finish on the surface was my own danish oil as shown in the project posting and I didn’t want to make a second batch so I tried some WaterLox and it wasn’t quite the darkness of the original finish so I went to some Penofin, the hardwood version.
I poured the Penofin on the surface, maybe a teaspoon and spread it around with a sanding block with 400 grit wet and dry paper. A few more pours and I had the entire surface wet. I sanded the surface with the wet oil.
If you just use Penofin and let it soak in and dry it has a Matte finish, If you sand it while wet you can get a little higher gloss finish. I’ve used a ROS sander before, but this was the first time with a hand sand. It worked out quite well. I let it dry about 1/2 hr and then wiped the surface with a couple of paper towels to remove the sanding/oil slurry that was now stuck on the surface. A little more aggressive wiping and I got the surface smooth.
The upper left burl is where the dye stain was and the lower is where the syrup was stained.
I let it dry for 24 Hrs and then reassembled the table.
I’ve encountered one additional problem since this table was made, The left front leg has bowed. These legs were cut from a 4 X 8 and I guess that the one leg had some stress that didn’t come out before the final shaping. I’m still considering what to do with it. I’m considering a shelf that will pull all 4 legs into alignment.