Stain on Century Dining Room Table

Hello

Someone spilled soup last night on our new dining room table and I can't quite figure out how to clean it up. We wiped it up, but now there is an area that when you look at from an angle you see the glare is very different. Everything else has a white cast from an angle (maybe a matte wax coating?) but the spot where the soup was looks darker and like there is almost an oil stain. I've used pledge and old english, but neither seemed to return it back to the rest of the table.

I can't determine if the soup is a stain, or if it instead just rinsed off a light wax coating. Any ideas?

Never use Pledge, it contains Silicone and permeates the finish making any repair almost impossible without taking off the finish and planing the table down about 1/8" to get below the silicone. Always use polish and wax that does not have silicone in the contents. Pledge in my opinion should be banned for use on any decent furniture.

Old English is a darkening agent designed for scratch repair, likely it didn't do anything but lay atop the surface - worst case it may have darkened the area.

I had a potential fix for you, but the Pledge has negated that, sorry.

A White cast/ring is caused by the heat from the hot soup bowl being on bare wood, the heat "opens up" the lacquer finish and allows moisture to get under the topcoat, then when the table area cools off the finish closes up and you see that white underneath. There is an aerosol product called No Blush that opens the topcoat up again and allows the moisture to escape, then when that dries you re-coat with a lacquer spray and you are good to go. With the Pledge on the spot, the No Blush will likely "Fish Eye" and create a bigger mess than what you have now, I'd not do any more to it.

What you can try is getting some 0000 Super Fine Steel Wool and going with the grain (important) with moderate pressure work that area and feather that section as well, don't rub in one spot. That may improve it, but won't fix it.

Always use pads under hot dishes on a wooden table. Probably wasn't the soup itself, but the bowl it was in. Pizza boxes being delivered and set on a table are a prime culprit of damaging tables from the hot bottom, I see that more than anything else.

Post a few photos that show the area, from two different directions - lets see what you are dealing with.

This is a can of No Blush:

https://www.amazon.com/Mohawk-Finish...51406443&psc=1

Interesting point about the pledge.

The old english was just the lemon oil actually, not the dark stuff.

It wasn't a heat or water stain. The finish looks fine, you only notice at a glare indiucing angle that the sheen is different from the rest of the table. I'm pretty well convinced at this point that it just removed the top coat of wax, and I need to decide to either replace it, or remove all the wax finish.

If you think it's just wax, that's easy. Wipe down the entire table top with Mineral Spirits, that will remove all the wax on the table without damaging anything. Turn the rag frequently when doing so. Then apply a good coat of paste wax to the top and buff it out by hand. That's all there is to it. Keep some 0000 steel wool around that can level the wax sheen with a light touch, if desired.

Yeah Pledge is evil and terrible, throw it away! :) We use Liquid Gold for cleaning and Briwax for waxing and it works well for us.