Tips For Treating Various Stains On Pine Wood Furniture
No matter what you do and how many measures you take to prevent it from happening, your beautiful pine table, like those available from Farmhouse Furnishings, will become stained, dirty and looking less aesthetically appealing than it did when you first bought it. How you go about cleaning your pine table, much like cleaning any wooden furniture, will largely depend on the condition of the table and the type of stain it has on it, if it has any at all, as well as how valuable it actually is.
If for instance, your pine table is antique, you may not want to do anything too harsh to clean it in fear of ruining its look and lowering its value. However, there are still many ways you can clean and improve a pine table without doing damage to it.
Cleaning Surface Stains
There will be times when you only need to remove relatively minor surface grime and dirt from your wooden table. A word of warning though – avoid using soap and water for your pine furniture, in this case table, as they can do more harm than good. You will have better success using a solution of linseed oil and gum turpentine. As well as removing unwanted oil, wax and dirt build up, this kind of mixture will also retire the wood’s lustre. It is always wise to finish by buffing the wood until it is dry using a dry cloth with some lemon oil polish. Oil soap is also a good alternative for removing surface stains from your pine table.
Removing Light Moisture Stains
Often, white spots or rings form on wooden, including pine, furniture such as tables and this is caused by moisture being absorbed into the protective wax layer coating the wood’s surface. You don’t actually have to remove the entire wax finish to remove the stains though. They can often be removed simply by using a small amount of toothpaste and a soft cloth. Use the soft cloth to buff the wood grains and then wipe the toothpaste off with a different, clean cloth before polishing the table with some wax or lemon oil to finish. If there are a large number of stains, you may want to attach a polishing accessory to a rotary hand tool, to help save some physical strain.
Removing Deeper Moisture Stains
When your table has more extensive or deeper stains, that have not penetrated fully into the wood, it may be time to use something more abrasive to clean. One option that is effective is three parts boiled linseed oil to one part turpentine. Gradually and slowly heat the oily mixture by pouring a little bit into a jar of hot water, then use a steel wool pad to dip into the mixture. Take the steel wool pad and work the solution against the stain, following the wood’s grain. Once the stain has gone, take a soft rag and buff the table to polish it. You should always treat the full surface of the table or the table as a whole to ensure it keeps a uniform appearance.
Removing Dark Spots
When spots or rings become dark on pine, it means that the moisture or stains have penetrated into the wood. To fix this type of problem you need to strip the surface to remove the finish and then reapply a new layer of finish. Ideally you should use stripping accessories with an oscillating tool to ensure the table is treated uniformly.
Once you have finished stripping the table you then need to apply a bleach suitable for wood to treat the stain. The bleach you use will depend on what caused the stain and the extent of it. You should be able to find in your local hardware store one of the most common wood bleaches – oxalic acid, which is 2 parts wood bleach and one part chlorine bleach. Once you have completed the process, you can then refinish the table using a a stain or an oil base stain buffed into the wood.
