How to Remove Wood Stains

Did you or a family member have a little accident on your wood furniture? Are you scrambling to find ways to clean it up? Even though wood is tough, it can still be stained or damaged if left untreated. Make sure to regularly maintain your teak by polishing it with teak oil twice a year, polish your oaks, and condition your mahogany, ebony, and dust other pine, beech, elm, and walnuts regularly.

If you don’t remember spilling alcohol on your wood, know that alcohol leaves white marks on your wood. You should clean alcohol stains from wood as soon as possible and should be blotted out. To remove the stain, you should put a lot of elbow grease into it with your usual polish. If that still doesn’t work, rub along the grain of the wood with a cream metal polish, on a soft rag.

Minor burns, however, are treatable, although on veneered surfaces you may have to cut out the damage and put a new piece of veneer in. If you wood is rough, rub it with metal polish, scrape and then sand the surface. Put blotting paper over the burn, and cover it with plastic wrap and leave it for a night.

You should probably consult a professional if it is a truly serious burn. Scrape out the burned wood with a knife and fill it with wood filler, and when that dries, sand and paint the area to the color of the grain. That’s probably the best you can do without a professional.

If you don’t have a coaster and put hot dishes on your wood, white marks can show on your wood. Please use a coaster. However, what you can do is to rub cream metal cleaner along the grain, and apply some vegetable oil and salt. Leave that for two hours, and apply polish.

As always, treat these as soon as possible. If the dented veneer splits you may end up having to refer to “How do I Remove Serious Burns?”, aka cutting out the damaged piece and replacing it with a new one. What you can do is to fill the hollow with warm water, and letting it stand to swell the wood. Otherwise, you can cover it with damp blotting paper, and apply warm iron to the dent.

You have to fill in the scratches, and there are scratch disguising sticks to match different woods, or if you have the time and the resources, you can mix beeswax polish and linseed oil and rub it all over the scratch, or use a wax crayon or the right color of shoe polish.

Mop up the water as soon as possible and let it dry before you apply cream metal polish along the grain of the wood. Alternatively you can mix some cigarette ash with petroleum jelly over the area.

Please remove it as quickly as possible before your wood is permanently stained. Use a paper towel or a dish towel, or you can use straight vinegar to dissolve the grease and wipe the surface with vinegar and warm water.