# Inky stains



## Fraise (May 19, 2012)

Hi I've been doing some repairs to an old mahogany book stand my wife inherited. But it has some ink stains on the front - think fountain pen ink. Any one have a suggestion for removing the stains and refinishing? Thanks in advance
John


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## Semipro (Mar 22, 2013)

John
You might want to try nail polish remove on a cotton ball to remove ink


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## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

First wipe it off with denatured alcohol to clean the finished surface. Then alternate wiping it with mineral spirits and sanding. If any remains after getting the finish off, then put undeleted bleach on it and rinse off after about 10 minutes with a TSP solution.

Alternate method- Bix Original Varnish and Stain Stripper. Mostly Acetone, plus other. Nail polish remover has Acetone, but you can use on your hands. Bix is very strong and corrosive, requiring gloves. After you get the finish off, dilute some Bix with water and scrub with coarse steel wool, that will loosen the stain in the grain. After it is well wetted... If it has a brown stain in the wood, scrub with white vinegar to flush the stain out of the grain. If a reddish stain, use bleach. To rinse and stabilize it, scrub and rinse with a TSP solution..

Less sanding on method 2. I use method 2 if there is a veneer and you don't want to sand through the veneer trying to lift the finish and stain. Ink will dissolve with either mineral spirits or acetone, but you want to dissolve and lift it out (flush it) instead of dissolving it and pushing it further into the grain... I use those 2 methods if it ink that is set into wood.

If it were fresh ink on finished wood, dishwashing soap works pretty well at stabilizing the ink and suspending it while trying to remove it.

If it were fresh ink on unfinished wood, then I use a baking soda and water paste and scrub it down. Baking soda is really abrasive stuff and will help stabilize the ink while trying to get it out.. Using acetone on unfinished wood to try to get ink out, just seems to dissolve the ink and pushes it further down into the wood grain.

Just my experiences on that and refinishing..


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## OPG3 (Jan 9, 2011)

WOW! Mikey has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. I had problems when trying to clamp live squid with Quercus-Ferrous clamps, the ink got on the oak. We used sand blasting with pellets of argon gas and it worked okay, but Mike's ideas are much better!

Otis Guillebeau - continuously prototyping useless projects, and on occasion cool stuff!


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## OPG3 (Jan 9, 2011)

Oops! We had Alphabet Soup for lunch and my grandson had sneezed the letters S&T onto my glasses - I thought it said "STinky stain removal" - MY BAD.

Definitely use Mike's suggestion, he is quite smart.

Otis


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## Fraise (May 19, 2012)

Thanks all. Both advice and humour!


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