Discolored white oak?

[Joe McMahon]

I asked this elsewhere and didn't get a response that answered the question.

I ordered some QSWO legs from one a vendords. They arrived three weeks ago and I left them wrapped up as my shop is 357 miles from my home. Well, I arrived at my shop last night and opened the bundle. I had 9 legs but two are discolored. They have purple stains on them.

I planed them and got nowhere. Apparently the stain or discoloration runs through the wood.

The bad legs kind of screwed up my project. What is this? I've worked with QSWO a lot and never before encountered this. Will stain cover it?

[Ron Petley]

Oak has a lot of tannins in it, acid, so it will discolor when it comes in contact with metal and some other things, the legs must have come in contact with some metal or something else with a little moisture to drive the reaction.
Maybe some one else with more know how can add to this.
Ron.

[Dewey Torres]

It was certainly iron of some sort. I bet if you still have the box you will find a staple or metal banding of some sort in it. Sorry but you will not likely be able to get it off. I sharpened some chisels on my bench which has oak aprons with wet stones (carelessly :rolleyes:) and they turned purple right before my eyes.

I know that is not what you wanted to hear.

[Joe McMahon]

This discoloration covers two sides of the legs and is about 7" long. I cut a piece off the leg and found that the color goes almost all the way through the leg.

[Harold Beck]

I remember someone mentioning that you could take iron stains out of oak with Oxalic (sp) acid. I believe it comes in solid form and is mixed with water. Just looked it up. It is 7.49 a pound at Rockler and from my google search looks like it can be found quite a few places.

If you can find it, give it a try.

HB

[Bill Keehn]

You don't suppose it could be some of that reclaimed wine stained oak? ;)

http://www.heritagesalvage.com/winesoaked.html