Dealing with Iron Stains

[Ken Loy]

After reading some advice here, I did a little test to prevent staining from iron dust left behind by tools. This is a picture of two bowls, both cut from the same maple tree, finished with Danish oil. The one on the left was wiped with lemon juice before applying the finish.

I have to believe that the gray splotches on the right bowl come from iron stains. The bigger, more defined black streaks are spalting or other grain colorations. Although the splotches don't ruin the appearance, it's interesting to see how much better it can be.

 

[hockenbery]

We keep a bottle of real lemon in this shop fridge.
maple and many other green woods need the black removed.

 

[robo hippy]

Ken, looking at the two bowls, one on the left appears to be standard bowl/flat grain orientation and the one on the right appears to be end grain, correct???? I don't see anything on the bowl on the left that indicates metal stains to me. Most common to me are finger prints and freckles. There are different colors in the left bowl, but I would attribute that to the wood and not to metal. You get all sorts of colors in each piece of wood.

robo hippy

 

[Dennis J Gooding]

On lemon juice: I recently boiled a madrone bowl in an enameled steel pot that apparently had gaps in the enamel. The result was a seriously blackened bowl. I tried lemon juice and it had a negligible effect. Any ideas why not? The juice was bottled Real Lemon.

 

[Karl Loeblein]

On lemon juice: I recently boiled a madrone bowl in an enameled steel pot that apparently had gaps in the enamel. The result was a seriously blackened bowl. I tried lemon juice and it had a negligible effect. Any ideas why not? The juice was bottled Real Lemon.

Wood is porous so dyes can set so hard that it’s impossible to remove without turning away the outer layers. Lemon juice is goor for removing tannin stains on your hands, but only light surface stain on wood. A word of warning, lemon juice left on light colored wood could leave behind a yellow hue.

 

[Richard Coers]

I don't think it's iron stain. I think it's from the finish soaking in, or just closer to the sapwood. The bowl on the left also has splotching, but looks to be closer to the center of the tree. Was the log standing dead? When spalting can start, the rest of the wood can also change colors.

 

[robo hippy]

Dennis, I would suspect that with a boiled piece, the metal stain would have soaked in really deep. Kind of like the metal stain from nails or fencing. Probably impossible to remove unless you let it soak in for a month or so.... It might also be from some thing else.

robo hippy