Selfsufficientish.com

The plumber came and did some repair work for us yesterday und used a jug to catch a dribble of water while bleeding air from the system. I was so upset after he left when I realised he'd put the jug down on my dressing table and made a white ring - it really notices. It's very pretty c1880 waxed pine with turned mirror supports and finials, wanted one for ages and finally OH bought this for me last year for my birthday come Christmas.

I've googled for a solution and found comments about mayo and ash but no recipe or method. Can any one please help?

Would a walnut rubbed on the mark work I wonder? it is recommended in some circumstances unfortunately sorry I cant remember which:(

My parents always had real wood furniture which my dad made himself and spent days French polishing - and then the rest of the years we lived in their house telling us not to put anything on it, don't scratch it, don't play near it, etc., etc. Moving on a few years, you can imagine my horror when my toddler (now 19YO) put his kiddy cup on the sideboard and left a white ring. I put the cup back on the ring before my dad saw it and went and got my mother who breezed in with a duster and a spray can of furniture polish and just polished it off. When she moved the cup my dad did see the ring and whoa you should have seen his face, but before he had chance to say anything it was gone and he was scooping his jaw up off the floor . I don't know what sort of wood the furniture was made of, but I know it wasn't pine. And I don't know what brand of furniture polish it was, but it will have been a big name brand of stinky chemical nastiness. I guess this is an idea to use as a "last resort".

I'm sure I've read somewhere that rubbing a used teabag on it might help - but again I'm not sure which wood it was meant for. I'm sure if you did it in layers though til you got a reasonable colour match, then rewax/polish.

Suggestion one: try any of the ideas on a bit inside or at the back before on the top of the dressing table.

Suggestion two: rub the ring with a dry cloth to remove any dampness, the rub it with a cut hazel nut. The oils shuoul match better than any artificial polises.

Suggestion three: lots of bees' wax & elbow greas over the next few days.

It really all depends on the colour & finish of the dressing table.

Suggestion four: seriously b****ck the plumber so he doesn't do this to anyone-else's antiques!

Good Luck

MW

Well I've had success but you won't guess what I used. Mayo didn't work although it made the marks on an old chest of drawers I tried it on less obvious. Hot Iron didn't work. UK products seen to strip the wax and make a lot of work re-finishing. Found an american product that appeared to be based on beeswax and lemon oil whuch set me thinking; home-made handcream is mostly beeswax and calendula oil and almost MWs 2 and 3 combined so I tried it and it worked - had to do the whole top in the end as it showed up the rest.Then spent half the evening poishing things with handcream. Ooo I'm a happy bunny again.

I've used olive oil and bicarb to clean white marks off wood successfully before (you can use any combination of oil and abrasive, so salt or ash would also work with any oil). Incidentally, olive oil and lemon juice are my polish of choice, on those rare occasions when I get the duster out .