Matching faded wood

[dickm]

Acquired a quite nice small oval sidetable in a mahogan-ish wood, with a deep 35mm diameter burn on the top. Patched this with small piece of nicely grain matched red hardwood which looked to be an acceptable colour match before fitting. BUT, once in place, and scraped level, the colour is noticeably darker than the surrounding wood which has obviously sat a good many years in full sun. Have tried hydrogen peroxide to lighten it, but without much success. Somewhere, was pretty sure I had some oxalic acid, but can't now find it. The rhubarb has all died back for winter, so can't fudge with that. Question - is the lightening that might be gained with oxalic acid likely to give a close effect to bleaching in sun, or will it introduce other colour changes?

 

[custard]

There's not much chance of getting an acceptable colour match from bleaching alone, what you should be aiming for with oxalic acid is to get a bit closer and take out any dominant and assertive colour tones both from the patch and from the top in the surrounding area. Basically you want the whole thing a bit too muted for your tastes. You'll then have to stain the entire surface (suggest water based aniline dyes), and finally paint on some darker grain lines right across the patch and into the surrounding top in order to obscure the join.

That's probably the strategy that'll get you closest to where you want to be. The problem is that even if you do a brilliant job there's no guarantee it will remain invisible. If the patch is Cherry for example (sometimes used as a Mahogany substitute) it will get darker in sunlight not lighter. But what the heck, have fun and worry about that if and when it happens!

Good luck!

 

[dickm]

There's not much chance of getting an acceptable colour match from bleaching alone, what you should be aiming for with oxalic acid is to get a bit closer and take out any dominant and assertive colour tones both from the patch and from the top in the surrounding area. Basically you want the whole thing a bit too muted for your tastes. You'll then have to stain the entire surface (suggest water based aniline dyes), and finally paint on some darker grain lines right across the patch and into the surrounding top in order to obscure the join.

Though I say it myself, the grain match I got is actually pretty brilliant! Just happened to find a bit of some tropical hardwood (it's definitely not cherry!) with identical directions of interlocked grain, so at least don't need to learn graining as well.

That's probably the strategy that'll get you closest to where you want to be. The problem is that even if you do a brilliant job there's no guarantee it will remain invisible. If the patch is Cherry for example (sometimes used as a Mahogany substitute) it will get darker in sunlight not lighter. But what the heck, have fun and worry about that if and when it happens!

You are probably right that taking it past the general tone and then bringing everything back up is the most likely to work.
The only other thought is whether an intense UV source directed at the patch could lighten it, while the rest of the top has gone as light as it is likely to get. Not that I've got a convenient UV source lying around!

 

[Chrispy]

Lakeone wood whitener I have found works very well at removing the red from woods like Mahogany.

 

[MusicMan]

You could let it fade in sunlight! I have a floor of Rhodesian teak, which varies from quite a deep red over most of the room, to quite a pale brown in the conservatory part. Took about a year.

 

[dickm]

Lakeone wood whitener I have found works very well at removing the red from woods like Mahogany.

Thanks for that suggestion. Looks a bit pricey, though, for one job, so will probably just rely on the Scottish sun. But it will likely take more than a year up here unless the latitude changes!