How to remove stain from a stock?

[A.Merrill]

I tired some tannic acid and stained with Aquafortis reagent and I guess the wood really sucked it up. I heat blushed it and it turned black. I thought ok, so I started with steel wool,  nothing.  I'm up to 100 grit and it takes awhile to get it where it should be. Is there something that will take the stain out of the wood?   Al

[Dennis Glazener]

Possibly wood bleach but that might be worse than the stain
Dennis

[Osprey]

Yeah, had a couple do that.  Sandpaper and elbow grease.

[bob in the woods]

The stain is in the wood. Unless you can alter the stain chemically, you will just have to remove that wood. Depending on the penetration depth, it might be best to leave it.  You might try an application of hydrogen peroxide on a small area . It's helped me in the past

[John Cotterall]

I just recently discovered Wood bleach. It’s made by Zinsser. It’s a two part process but very simple. No sanding necessary but maybe whiskering necessary. You can buy it through Amazon or most hardware stores.

[bluenoser]

The two parts are lye and concentrated hydrogen peroxide.  I have used it to bleach black walnut almost white in preparation for staining to match European walnut.  I can see how it might work to reduce or neutralize the effects of aqua fortis.

[BJamesBeck]

Are you using an oil or some sort when you are rubbing it back? I used a scotchbrite pad and some Murphy's oil soap to rub back the black of the tannic acid on my last build and it came off very easily where I wanted it to. The tannic acid definitely turned VERY black, but I'm surprised it isn't rubbing away easier for you. There were areas on mine where I hade to rub extremely lightly to keep any of the dark look at all.

Also, I don't know that it would matter, but did you apply the AF or tannic acid first?

I believe my order of operations was:
- Apply AF coat and blush
- Apply AF coat and blush
- Apply tanic acid and blush
- Almost immediately began rubbing back the tannic acid black with oil/scotchbrite

[A.Merrill]

Osprey your right.
BJamesBeck, I applied tannic acid first then Aquafortis. It's a very hard piece of maple and I've had it over ten years I think it was so dry it really sucked it all in deeper than usual. I've built guns for 39 years now and never had this problem before and I've had stocks turn black before but never before has it been this hard to remove. It takes 100 grit sand paper to remove it.    Al

[Mike Lyons]

I got the same results with tannic acid as you.  The sun has noticeably lightened mine up.