Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Removing walnut stains
Greg W. in NC
>I roughed out a lot of walnut blanks this weekend. While it was fun, it did leave my hands blackened / stained. Nothing so far has removed the stain (even tried the "orange" soap.) Any suggestions on removing the stain, or do I have to keep wearing gloves to the office? :-)
thanks!
Re: Removing walnut stains
Mike Schwing from Maryland
>Didn't it stain everything else, too? Floor, clothes, lathe bed? Thats some strong stain. Chlorine bleach seems to work fine on my white shop floor, but I never got it out of my skin other than with time.
Re: Removing walnut stains
Greg W. in NC
>Steel wool helped removed it from the ways, but even a brillo pad on my hands didn't work.
I'm curious if all walnut will do this? I've turned walnut before, but never this much, nor never this wet (it was cut about a week ago.) I wonder if there's a way to prevent it in the future, or if it's a certain kind of walnut that does it?
Re: Removing walnut stains
Ric Erkes
>Oh Greg, forgot to tell you. I always wear gloves when I turn wet Walnut. :)
Ric
Re: Removing walnut stains
Greg W. in NC
>NOW you tell me!!!!! @#^%@%^ I literally removed some of the skin from my right hand, where the shavings were hitting it! Just glad I don't have to appear in court this week......talk about embarrassing. Looks like bad insect bites on all my fingers!
Re: Removing walnut stains
Joel Hunnicutt
>I do allot of dyeing and ebonizing. I always remeber gloves right after I finish! I think it makes me look more professional in my day job when I show up with blue and black hands :)
Lemon
Larry Hancock; Ardmore, OK
>Greg,
Buy some lemons in the produce section of the grocery store, cut one and squeeze the juice on your hands after turning wet woods that stain you hands. It works a lot better than the bottled juice.
Larry
Re: Lemon
Greg W. in NC
>Thanks guys! I'll try the lemon juice. Next time I'll wear gloves....hopefully before I turn the walnut!
Re: Removing walnut stains
Wayne Wright
>I also turned some walnut this weekend and had the stain on my hands. I used some Soft Scrub with bleach bathroom cleaner and it removed all the stains.
Re: Lemon
Peter Teubel
>I buy those little plastic lemon shaped lemon juice bottles (RealLemon brand). Use it in place of soap and it works wonders.
Re: Removing walnut stains
Whit
>Yep,lemon juice is the answer. I find that bottled lemon juice (Realemon, or some such) seems to work as well or better than fresh lemon. I also use it to minimize the cross staining of the sapwood from the heartwood in green walnut. It helps a lot.
Where I can, I use a random orbit sander with vacuum to pick up the heartwood dust before it gets imbedded in the sapwood.
Lemon also helps clean up the ways followed by rubbing down with gray synthetic steel wool (equivalent to 000).
Whit
Re: Removing walnut stains
Peter Teubel
>Whit wrote:
" I also use it to minimize the cross staining of the sapwood from the heartwood in green walnut. It helps a lot. "
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Exactly how do you use lemon juice to accomplish this? Just slather it on the sapwood? I've had a problem with that kind of staining lately on a bunch of natural edge walnut bowls and would like to reduce or eliminate it if possible.