# Blotching after stripping



## dmkels (Jun 2, 2009)

Hi,

I'm trying to refinish a nightstand but ran into some sort of blotching in the wood after I stripped the finish. I attached a photo. I'm guessing that staining the wood will only make the circular marks worse, and I have no idea how to get rid of them. I would appreciate any suggestions!

Thanks,

Dave


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## Jim Tank (Apr 28, 2009)

They look like rings from some bottles like fingernail polish remover or some other mysterious chemical concoction. What ever they are, they have stripped out the natural coloring of the wood more than the stripper you used. The idea is to even it all out, (what has been done to one part should be done to all parts) If you start to sand away the problem, there's no knowing how deep you have to go, but you could try 1/16 on the entire surface and see if that is an easy fix, but I suspect you will have to experiment with wood bleach. It will wreck the rest of the wood as good as the chemical wrecked the ringed spots. Then you can bring the whole top back uniformly with some creative staining to look like new. Be sure to show us some pictures of progress along with the final successful outcome.


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## dmkels (Jun 2, 2009)

Thanks for your reply, Jim. Although you have put a lot of faith in my non-existent finishing skills. I'll give it a shot and will post some photos assuming I don't make a mess out of this.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

*WELCOME TO THE FORUM*

You might first try using a wood bleach like Jim suggested, one with oxalic acid, like Liberon. The wood should be absolutely dry to apply. Follow instructions and neutralize. Once completely dry, it may lighten the whole top and make your blemish even lighter, or it may bring the rest of the top to the lightness of the blemish. 

If it needs further tending beyond the bleach, allow to completely dry and pass a ROS over the top with 220x.


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## Gene Howe (Feb 28, 2009)

Jim may be correct but, I'd try one more stripper application first. Sometimes, something causes the stripper to penetrate deeper in some spots. A guess would be that the lighter spots you see may be what the originally unstained/unfinished wood looked like. I guess this is a round-about way of suggesting that just maybe all the finish has not been removed.


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