Faded spots on teak table surface

[superheat6k]

Today's boating adventure took me to my workshop where armed with some chemical tripper and then the hot air gun I removed the varnish from the teak saloon table. After 2 hours graft the table top and edge mouldings were all clear of vanish and mostly the top veneered surface has come up very well, with no lasting damage from 26 years service since new.

However, when cleaning down with clean white spirit there are several very light blotches in the otherwise clean medium brown coloured teak grain.

My daughter's opinion was that only I would notice them, but is there anything I can try to blend down the bleached areas to match with the rest of the grain before I start applying the varnish. I am very loathe to use a powerful wood dye - these blotches are only about 5 in number with the largest roughy the size of my thumb nail. I wondered if a medium brown felt tip pen carefully applied might work - would the varnish lock the colour in, or would it just fade away ?

I will be using Epifanes varnish very well thinned for the first few coats, and will gradually reduce the thinning. I am expecting to apply ~ 12 - 15 coats to achieve a decent lustrous surface.

Thanks, and oh yes, a Happy New Year to all fellow forumites.

 

[Hydrozoan]

In amateur furniture restoration, I’ve had both reasonable successes and obvious failures in colour matching and am no expert – so do take what I suggest in that knowledge!

I’d be wary of ordinary felt tip pens and would be inclined to try a spirit-based (not water-based) teak dye, touched in carefully and light-handedly on the patches with an artist’s brush but starting with it diluted in white spirit, allowing it to dry and giving more ‘coats’ (or working with lower dilutions – i.e. higher dye concentrations) until you have something like a match. At what dilution to start? My suggestion would be to try test dilutions on as similar a piece of un-dyed wood as you can obtain, and compare with what you have – and then start with a somewhat higher dilution than the best match, as you can more readily darken than lighten.

(Touch-up pens are available with spirit-based dyes – e.g. http://www.liberon.co.uk/product/touch-up-pen/ - but I have not used them, and they would not allow the progressive approach I have suggested. Even so, I would prefer one of them to an ordinary felt tip.)

I hope that someone with more expertise and experience will be along to advise, but whatever you end up doing there is likely IMO to be a fair amount of uncertainty about the result; so good luck - and a happy New Year to all, too!

 

[Concerto]

I would recommend using a water based stain as it works slower and can be wiped off to stop any further darkening of a treated area. This cannot be done with a spirit based dye and it cannot be reduced in colour if too dark. The water based stain can be reduced with water on the wood before it dries, thereby diluting the colour. Liberon wood stains are what I would recommend using. Repeated applications can be made to increase the colour slowly with diluted stain solution. You will need to check the colour with the veneer completely dry, so once dry gently use a hair dryer to remove the last of the moisture. Remember that application of varnish may make it change colour again. A simple check you can then use is to wipe the area with white spirit as this will look like varnish, however this will have to be completely removed before any further staining.

I have used many of the Liberon spirit based dye pens, but they are very crude for colour control. Not to be recommended for this job.

 

[Hydrozoan]

I would recommend using a water based stain as it works slower and can be wiped off to stop any further darkening of a treated area. This cannot be done with a spirit based dye and it cannot be reduced in colour if too dark. The water based stain can be reduced with water on the wood before it dries, thereby diluting the colour. Liberon wood stains are what I would recommend using. Repeated applications can be made to increase the colour slowly with diluted stain solution. You will need to check the colour with the veneer completely dry, so once dry gently use a hair dryer to remove the last of the moisture. Remember that application of varnish may make it change colour again. A simple check you can then use is to wipe the area with white spirit as this will look like varnish, however this will have to be completely removed before any further staining.

I have used many of the Liberon spirit based dye pens, but they are very crude for colour control. Not to be recommended for this job.

I agree about pens for the reason I gave, which boils down to the same as yours - lack of control. OTOH I have personally found water-based dyes less easy to dilute and apply successfully (more of the colour in them seemed 'particulate'), but quite possibly I have not had good technique. I take your point about the water-based type having a slower action, but my answer to over-application with spirit-based dye would be, as I said, progressive dilution.

In any event, the OP could try both diluted spirit and water based teak dyes for himself on a piece of similar un-dyed wood for not much more than a tenner, and see which he feels happier with!

But I do agree with you again about a white spirit wipe to simulate varnish - and I assume a clear varnish to finish, although even that will of course have some effect on the final match.