Removing Danish oil from wood

[docus]

Hello,

 

I've recently been treating the wood panels in my cabin with Danish Oil. However, I've been using oil with a dark tint (Colron from B&Q), which makes the cabin feel a bit too dark. I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to remove the oil? If I could bring it back to bare wood I would like to redo it with clear, untinted oil, or perhaps a clear varnish. I'm reluctant to sand it off because it's only a very thin oak veneer (oak-faced ply) and I don't trust myself not to sand right through it!

 

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

 

Docus (unfortunately not very good at DIY...)

[carlt]

You can have a go with white spirit and wire wool but it might not work (though it might lighten it a bit).

[starman]

Hello,

 

I've recently been treating the wood panels in my cabin with Danish Oil. However, I've been using oil with a dark tint (Colron from B&Q), which makes the cabin feel a bit too dark. I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to remove the oil? If I could bring it back to bare wood I would like to redo it with clear, untinted oil, or perhaps a clear varnish. I'm reluctant to sand it off because it's only a very thin oak veneer (oak-faced ply) and I don't trust myself not to sand right through it!

 

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

 

Docus (unfortunately not very good at DIY...)

 

 

You might get it off with oxalic acid which you can get from some chemists -- we used it to get rid of the dark stains in oak caused by dampness but do, do test it on a small out-of-the-way area first.

Otherwise I'm really not sure as danish oil type products work by soaking into the wood. Best thing I would say is to ring the technical department of Colron - I guess they're part of a much bigger paint and wood treatment company.

[PeterF]

B&Q sell a special remover for Danish Oil, much less powerful than nitromors type which is suitable for removal of natural oil type finishes. The trouble is I can not off hand recall what it is though, it is on the shelves next to the Danish oil etc. in my local B&Q. It might be a Liberon product rather than Colron. it is more expensive than Nitromors types. However, I did not try it because when I have recently removed some dark stains from my side hatches using oxalic acid that seemed to remove the oil as noted by another poster. Also, I used some very fine sandpaper on some areas to remove oil further to enable the oxalic acid to work better. When I applied new danish oil the original colour has almost come back. As the oil remover was quite expensive I thought I would try without it first.

 

Peter F.

[NB Alnwick]

I am always amazed at how easy it is to remove products like this - I expected Danish Oil to 'soak' into the wood - especially with softwood which I thought would soak it up like blotting paper but it doesn't and you can scrape it off the surface by dragging a sharp blade (a plane blade held at right angles to the surface will do) over it. Even Cuprinol Five Star Wood Treatment (which is like petrol) doesn't seem to soak in for more than a few millimetres.

 

The only decent penetration I have seen with a preservative is creosote on railway sleepers but the process was quite complicated. They were placed in a huge vacuum/pressure chamber and after pumping out the air, left there in a vacuum for up to 24 hours, then the hot creosote was flooded in and the pressure raised at anything up to 300 psi.

[PaddingtonBear]

If this is cheap very thin veneer I would be very careful as excessive use of 'removing fluids' of various types might just do as it says on the tin and remove the veneer completely or even worse remove it partially. How about getting some new veneer and renewing it?

[David Schweizer]

Hello,

 

I've recently been treating the wood panels in my cabin with Danish Oil. However, I've been using oil with a dark tint (Colron from B&Q), which makes the cabin feel a bit too dark. I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to remove the oil? If I could bring it back to bare wood I would like to redo it with clear, untinted oil, or perhaps a clear varnish. I'm reluctant to sand it off because it's only a very thin oak veneer (oak-faced ply) and I don't trust myself not to sand right through it!

 

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

 

Docus (unfortunately not very good at DIY...)

Danish oil is organic, and I remove it from my outdoor furniture with a scrubbing brush and fairy liquid. The Colron wood dye will be a bit more difficult. White spirit will remove some of it, but you may have to bleach the wood to remove all of it.

 

As a matter of interest, I have never been a fan of using Danish oil on the interior of a boat, because of it's tendancy to attract moisture. Others will disagree, but on a boat there is really no substitute for good quality varnish. I recommend Blackfriars.

[alan_fincher]

What is certainly true is that unless you have an unusually thick oak veneer, any attempt to use sandpaper on it is highly likely to go through.

 

We had an area where wood had been glued on top of veneered ply, and, having prised it off with no damage so far, I naively thought I might gently remove the glue without going right through.

 

Not a prayer!

[docus]

Thanks to all for the advice - I tried white spirit and wire wool on a patch and it took the oil off quite well. There's still dark dye in the grain, but maybe I'll just have to live with that, unless anyone has any ideas! It's going to take many many hours to clean the whole lot, but maybe that'll teach me not to rush in blindly next time..... but I doubt it!

 

Thanks again,

Docus

[David Schweizer]

Thanks to all for the advice - I tried white spirit and wire wool on a patch and it took the oil off quite well. There's still dark dye in the grain, but maybe I'll just have to live with that, unless anyone has any ideas! It's going to take many many hours to clean the whole lot, but maybe that'll teach me not to rush in blindly next time..... but I doubt it!

 

Thanks again,

Docus

 

The cheapest way to lighten wood is to use some Oxalic Acid Wood bleach which can be purchased in powdered form, but it does need to be used carefully, or you can buy a specially prepared chemical made by Rustins (a lot more expensive).

Edited May 23, 2009 by David Schweizer