dealing with a stained table top and potential refinishing

[WoodLight]

My wife and I have a table she inherited from her grandparents which we recently received a pretty nasty stain a while back. (See the photos below.) We forgot a bag of frozen yogurt or ice cream (something like that) in bag as we were leaving for a few days. I am trying to decide the best way to repair the problem, preferably without having to strip, restain and finish the entire table (and the matching set of chairs).

The main part of the stain is on just one leaf of the table. My best case scenario would be to strip this leaf down and try to match the stain but as this would be my first attempt at matching like this, I'm unsure how to proceed and whether I can indeed match the color. I've never done anything like this before. My other concern is that it looks as though the food stain penetrated into the open grain of the wood and may be evident even after stripping, sanding and refinishing.

The table is about 80 years old, made of solid wood. I'm not sure what the original finish is, but it is stained and if sealed at all, it is pretty "close to the wood" - perhaps just a thin coat or two of shellac? The open grain of the wood is still very evident to the touch. I originally thought the table was made of oak, but after looking more closely I now believe it is ash.

I would appreciate any advice or insight from those more experienced with this sort of repair/refinishing/matching job.

[dcustoms]

That stain looks pretty bad. One thing you could try before getting into refinishing that part would be to wipe it down with denatured alcohol. when that dries see what you have. A lot of times that will pull any moisture out of the finish with out changing the color. Beyond that I am not an expert in refinishing. good luck on the repair

[AceHoleInOne]

I hesitate on this, been thinking...I'm just wondering if that's an oil finish. Looks dull. Try a little mineral spirits see if it picks up any color from the wood. If so, may be a good wash or two with mineral spirits, a good scuff sand and apply some more oil? Do the same on the chairs. Good wash with mineral spirits and re-oil.

[WoodLight]

Thanks to both of you for your thoughts. With your suggestions in mind, maybe the place to start is a test with both denatured alcohol and mineral spirits to get a better idea what the existing finish is and see how each solvent will react.

Luckily I remembered that I do have the wood from one of the chairs that was broken years and years ago. (I kept the wood because I wanted to re-use it in another project - still haven't done anything with it.) I can use this as scrap to test solvents and refinishes (and stain colors if that turns out to be necessary - I have a feeling it will be.)

Ace, I think you might be right that it is oil. I have no experience with straight oil finishes, but it is so 'close to the wood' that I'm surprised I didn't think of this myself. If the finish is oil, it sounds like it will be pretty easy to deal with removing it. We'll see what happens to the original stain color underneath that when it's treated with the same solvent. I have a feeling that I'll be either re-staining the whole table and chair set or going straight to the finish. Much of this choice will be up to my wife, since it is her family heirloom.

Thanks again to both of you for your insights.

[Derwood]

So what happened?

[Derwood]

I mean, did you end up stripping it?