Water marks are one of the most common types of blemish in wood surfaces. They often take the shape of white rings as the main offenders are usually hot mugs or the bottom of vases.
We’ve had many calls over the years from customers trying to find the best way to remove the white or dark rings from wood surfaces around the house. Fortunately, you don’t need to be a professional restorer to tackle some of these issues. With a few handy products, and the correct application, you can remove water stains and restore your wood surfaces to their former glory.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the current advice on the internet, why you should be cautious applying those methods, and the wood care products that we (and professionals) recommend to use, that shouldn’t cause further damage.
Understanding Water Marks and White Rings?
Water marks and white rings are usually caused when liquids are left on a wood surface for long periods of time. As mentioned earlier, the main culprits are usually mugs and glasses with wet bottoms, left on tables or counter tops. It’s important to know that any liquid, be it water, oil or condiments can mark most wood finishes.
It’s very common to find these marks on antiques due to the amount of use over the years. In addition to the long lifespan, traditional finishes, such as French Polishes (Shellac) and Wax Polishes (Beeswax), are often more susceptible to water damage than modern finishes.
We can categorise water marks into two camps:
1. White water marks: These are usually superficial. The moisture is suspended in the wood finish, while the surface has dried out. These are what we are going to mostly tackle in this article.
2. Dark water marks: These occur when the moisture has passed through the finish and stained deep into the wood grain. We recommend getting in touch with a restorer for these. The finish will need to be removed and the stain bleached or carefully sanded. Particularly with older furniture, it’s extremely easy to permanently ruin the item if done incorrectly. It takes many years of tuition and practice to do this well, and many restorers will advise you to learn to love the marks as part of the patina or character of the antique, rather than risk the piece.
Questionable advice on the internet
There are some pretty wacky blogs out there at the moment suggesting using household items to rectify the blemishes in furniture. And while these might work on modern furniture, there is a real risk that these methods could cause damage (especially to antiques).
We’re going to run through the top 3 methods that you should avoid and explain why:
- Heating or Ironing the wood: Without lots of practice, applying localised heat to wood is risky business. Not only do you risk melting the finish, but also risk causing a dark burn, which will have to be sanded out to be removed. We’ve seen some recommendations to use a damp towel under the iron - this could create larger water marks or raise the grain of the wood. Furthermore, many antiques use veneers for decorative purposes and modern furniture may have thin veneers to save on costs. These can delaminate if the adhesive is melted.
- Applying Mayonnaise or Olive oil: With this method, you’re effectively adding oils to rehydrate the dried surface. The problem is, there are fats in these foods that will sit in the finish and smell after a while. Not only this, but if you apply the oils without stopping the absorption, you’ll find a dark grease mark in the wood that will be hard to budge. This is because the grease doesn’t dry and will continue absorbing.
- Baking soda and toothpaste: Again, these items are not made for this application and the chemical reaction can create a light bleaching (think about the application to your teeth) causing the surface to lighten further.
What we recommend to our customers
Luckily traditional manufacturers such as Liberon, Rustins and Fiddes, who have been making tried and tested wood finishes for over a hundred years, have well established products to tackle white water stains.
Some wood finishes are far more vulnerable to water damage, and are easier to damage, than others. Generally, the older the piece of furniture, the less aggressive you should be in restoration. In the case of antiques, if you took steel wool, abrasive, alcohol or paint stripper to the furniture or surface, you can very easily (irreparably) remove any future value, in patina and originality, within a couple careless seconds.
Luckily, the following products are very straightforward to use and shouldn’t cause damage. They combine naturally occurring oils (such as Turpentine), polish, extremely fine abrasive and a touch of solvent to degrease the surface. I can hear you saying, “well that is a combination of what you said not to use?!” Yes, but a perfectly formulated cocktail of elements in subtle quantities that work together to make the product work really well.
3 products we recommend to remove white water marks
- Liberon Ring Remover
- Liberon Liquid Pure beeswax with Turpentine
- Liberon Burnishing cream (if required)
- Liberon Ring Remover - Although Liberon recommends this product for High Gloss finishes such as French Polishes, Varnishes and Lacquers, we have found that it works very well on waxed and oiled surfaces too. Apply liberally on a lint free cotton cloth to the surface, locally to the ring or white mark. Apply in a circular motion continuously until the mark vanishes. Leave for a day and if the white stain has reappeared, further applications may be required.
- Briwax Beeswax or Liberon Liquid Pure Beeswax with Turpentine - We love using this product because it smells so good! Furniture that is over 200 years old may just be waxed. The turpentine in the beeswax absorbs into the wood grain bringing up the colour and pattern in the grain and removes any white marks over time. Once buffed this wax gives a fantastic, deep lusture. We tend to leave it on for a few hours on a faded piece then buff off. We find this brings back the colour the best.
- Liberon Burnishing Cream - Burnishing cream is the next step on highly polished surfaces if the ring remover hasn’t worked. This is a stronger mixture of oil and abrasive. We would recommend trying this in an inconspicuous area first. The oil can really intensify the colour of the grain which might not be to taste.
As mentioned, the oil in all of these products revives the colour in faded wood. So if you have an antique that has part faded from being in direct sunlight. Try one of these!
Once the white ring has vanished, apply a wax polish to revive the surface sheen to the desired shine. Building wax polish will help keep build resistance to future water marks.
Side Note: If you were concerned about the chemicals involved - the main solvent, Turpentine, is refined pine tree sap - so as natural as it gets and has been used for hundreds of years.
How to prevent water marks?
Follow these tips to prevent water marks in the future:
- Adopt coasters and placemats as part of your home decor. There are some very attractive coasters out there, and in our opinion the humble cork coaster suits all settings.
- If liquid is spilt, immediately lightly dab the surface dry. Give the surface a light polish after using either Fiddes Supreme Wax or Liberon Black Bison Wax Polish.
- If you’re cleaning a surface, use a very lightly dampened cloth or use the Fiddes Wood Surface Cleaner for surfaces in contact with food. This anti bacterial spray formula includes waxes that don’t strip the surface wood finish, but replenishes it.
- If you’re applying a Hard Wax Oil, particularly in bathrooms or around kitchen sinks, prime the surface with Osmo Wood Protector Basecoat. This creates an excellent barrier to moisture.
- If you have an antique dressing table, consider investing in a glass top to shield from makeup and perfume overspray.
Conclusion
White water marks are usually very easy, cheap and safe to remove with the correct products and techniques. Obviously, it’s always better to avoid water marks from occurring in the first place, but as we all know, accidents happen.
When it comes to dark marks or rings, particularly on antiques, we really encourage you to embrace it as part of its well-lived character. As previously mentioned, even the most experienced professional will struggle to remove the mark without affecting the overall patina of the item
If you have any further questions or are still having trouble shifting a watermark, please don’t hesitate to contact us on info@restorate.co.uk. If you send photos we’ll be able to give you tailored advice.