Made a mistake with Danish oil on Teak veneer and hopefully won't make another

[Teresa McKernan]

I sanded a very lightly stained inherited mid century teak veneer coffee table with 220 grit followed by 600, I applied a coat of Danish oil, waited 10 min, rubbed down with paper towel, waited a day, did the second coat (again waited 10 min and then rubbed off excess). All was beautiful. And then 4 hours later disaster and this is when I went off course.

I noticed a dark scratch on the wood that I had missed. I sanded the spot out, with 220 and 600, and then tried dabbing the Danish oil in and wiping off, and then a day later, applied the second coat to try and catch up, but there is a dip and a colour difference. This morning I tried a third coat on the entire table - still a dip.

So, I went and bought paint thinner (mineral spirit base) as everything else is sold out and put one coat of mineral spirits on that entire leaf. My intent was to remove the Danish oil on the leaf, sand at 600 and then re-coat the leaf until it caught up (3 coats) and then do a 4th.

I am a complete newbie - the mineral spirits don't appear to be doing anything. I rubbed it on and let it dry, the putty knife is coming off clean when I do a gentle scrape.

All advice will be appreciated. IMG_4607.pdf

[wtnhighlander]

Once the varnish in the Danish oil has cured, thinner will do nothing to remove it. My suggestion would be to gently sand the entire panel with 400-600 grit, trying to avoid cutting through the veneer. Even with tinted Danish oil you may be able to get a reasonable color match by sanding only the part that has the scratch, but sand the entire face of it. When the surface looks evenly colored, then try to re-apply the Danish oil.

[Chestnut]

Set that out side and get a suntan.

Teak changes color drastically with sun exposure. What happened is you sanded off the oxidized layer of wood and you are seeing the un-oxidized color of the wood. If you want to even things up put some towels on the table to isolate the lighter area and get some sun exposure on the lighter colored refinished spot.

https://www.mcilvain.com/news/wood-color-changes-explained/

 

[Teresa McKernan]

Hi Chestnut and wtnhighlander,

Thank you both for your comments. I will sand that piece, reoil and then stick it in the sun!

Awesome help, thank you,

teresa

 

[Chestnut]

Don't do any more sanding. Your piece looks like it's veneered and any additional sanding may cause you to sand through the veneer.

I'd try and even out the color with some sun exposure if that doesn't work then possibly address some additional sanding.

Once you sand through the veneer it's game over there is no fixing it.

[Tpt life]

What evidence do we have that this is veneer? That V groove is deeper than most commercial veneer. Teak is not likely to let a ton of glue through like some species. 

[Teresa McKernan]

It is veneer - I did do some sanding (just came back to this forum and saw the warnings, yikes). I also did a bit of steaming to try and take out the hollow. I don't think I really took much of the wood off - mostly the oil (changed out a lot of sandpaper). I'm just going to live with it as is....not try to fix the dent any more than I have (the steaming worked to take about 1/2 of the depth out), and I know it will be a bit weird looking right there, but I'd rather live with a small imperfection than ruin it more. I've attached a pic of what it looks like now. It is sanded to 600 grit and I'll put the first coat of Danish Oil on tomorrow and then then 2nd 24 hr later, and then the 3rd and it (fingers crossed) will match.

Hopefully I'm on the right track, but I'll take a look here again before tomorrow's oiling.

Thank you everyone, it is really nice to know you are all out there with all of your experience

teresa

 

IMG_4669.pdf IMG_4668.pdf IMG_4667.pdf