5 Ways of Removing Water Stain On Wood Furniture
Water marks on your wood furniture should not be so hard to remove after you have known the ways and means. As in most other wood stains, the ugly marks left by spilt water or a glass of water placed directly on top of wood furniture falls into two categories: white rings and black marks. Either way, the tools and procedures of removing the stain are quite the same. But taking action immediately as soon as the stain occurs greatly reduces the difficulty.
Gentle Buffing
As soon as you see the stain, try buffing it gently with a clean, dry cotton cloth. It is important to act quickly so that the water does not penetrate deep into the finish. For a white ring stain you can rub it off by using a very fine steel wool saturated with lemon oil. The lemon oil will act as lubricant between the wood and steel wool.
You can also rub the stain with a toothpaste (not the gel type) applied on a damp cloth. Leave it for half an hour and then polish with a furniture polish. I personally use Original Bee's Wax All Purpose Polish Spray Beeswax 17oz
Paste mixtures of baking soda and water or salt with cooking oil are effective as well in removing water stains on wood.
Using white toothpaste to rid water mark
Mayonnaise Buffing
Sometimes the solution can be found on your refrigerator. Another buffing trick of stain removal on wood furniture is a combination of mayonnaise and cigar or cigarette ashes. Rub the mixture gently on the surface and as usual polish it off with a furniture polish. Or you can simply spread the mayonnaise on a paper towel and place it on top of the white stain, leave it for about 15 minutes.
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
This one is a wood cleaning product which has garnered not a few positive reviews from consumers. It can be used not just to rid water marks on wood furniture but on many other surfaces as well like kitchen appliances, tiles and grouts. The product basically is melamine foam which was said to be effective as abrasive cleaner. You can find Mr. Clean Magic Eraser at sears.com or at most online stores.
Dry Ironing
If all the above methods above did not remove the water mark on your furniture you may want to try a different approach. It was found out that putting a hot iron (without steam) over a cotton cloth on top of a stain a few seconds is effective in removing water marks. The stain may not disappear at the first time, so do the procedure repeatedly.
A lady from Ohio commented that she couldn’t find her iron. What she did was to improvise by grabbing a hair dryer. She held the device a few inches from the stain for about 5 minutes while simultaneously buffing with a dry cloth. She was amazed how it works!
Oxalic Acid
When all other means of removing stain on your wood furniture fail, refinishing would be the last resort. This method is mostly done on black marks which cannot be removed except by taking off the finish on the stained furniture. The stain is then attacked by bleaching the spot where the black mark appears. Oxalic acid is used as bleaching agent because it does not make the wood white but retains its natural color.
Related Posts:
Easy Tips for Removing Stain on Wood Furniture
What You Need to Know Before Refinishing Your Antique Furniture
How to Remove Stain on Upholstered Furniture
Below is a silent video showing how a water stain was removed by using a flat iron:
I normally don’t do comments but after trying the mayonnaise overnight to no avail, I tried the magic eraser and it worked beautifully after a few minutes. I will definitely do this again. I oiled the piece after using the eraser with orange oil.
Great article
We have used many of these techniques successfully.
The Iron one is the most dependable of all.
Nice article.
Simple but useful tip.
Thanks
Wood furniture takes special care. That’s why so many of us use covers and coasters and take other means to protect our wood pieces. Sometimes though, accidents do happen. Gentle buffing is the key. As soon as we see the mark appear, try rubbing gently until the stain disappears. It’s important to act quickly so the water doesn’t have much time to penetrate the wood. Thanks very much for sharing your precious comprehension. You make a great point. Got some great information here. Your view is definitely something Id like to see more of.