I am working with some cherry. I noticed some discoloration in a very "unnatural" shape that doesn't seem to be in the style of sapwood or something like that.
You can see two "splotches" on the top of the piece here (the one in the top-center is shaped like a "7" and the one on the top right is shaped like a "T"):
Does anyone know what this is? I like to at least have a response so when the person I give it to says "what is this large weird thing in my tray?" I can at least go into some big story about how interesting trees are and how this happens, etc. haha.
You can say some trees register their age by using some of the chemicals from the soil and rain to discolor their wood grain.. This one was trying to say it was 71 years old!
It looks like burn marks to me. Try sanding it by hand and see if it goes away. It can also be the resulted from taping if you used tape to mask those areas. If sanding doesn't work, lightly dampen the entire surface to raise the grain and sand.. Hopefully if will come off.
mrjinx007 - I really don't think it is burn marks because it goes up into the side and top of the rim of the tray as well where there wasn't cutting with the same tool. I'll take a better picture tonight to show that. I will also try what you said because it won't hurt anything
papadan - I wet it and smelled it and it didn't smell any different than non-stained parts of the board (when also wet).
Is there anything I can do to recover from this (I assume no one thinks it is good enough to be given as a gift in this state?)? I'd imagine if I oiled the tray it the discolored part would still not match much better.
Looks like gray stain to me. An enzymatic oxidation in the wood when the wood was green and the temp and humidity was very high, comes from drying too slow. See this a lot in maple and pecan. It can penetrate deeply into the wood.
Danny - Hm, I've never heard of that, but it's the most plausible explanation I've heard so far I think . In doing some quick research about it, I didn't see anything that seemed to indicate that it can be fixed after the fact - would you agree with that? Is there some kind of chemical "bleach" that could remove something like this?
I think WDHLT15 has given you the explanation you needed to go with the present. This is going to be difficult to cover up. Maybe ask Charles Neil's opinion as to how to finish it.
mudflap4869 - Do you mean a 2-component hydrogen peroxide/sodium hydroxide bleach? Either way, should I bother trying to get it only on the stained area? Or just apply it to the entire surface hoping that the bleached unstained wood will look more like the bleached stained area?
I've been thinking about this thread (I know, it's a sickness) and had to re-think my suggestion. While it may still be due to foreign material in the tree, I'm thinking that the discolored areas are really wood that was dead when the tree was sliced up. Could also be from an area near a dead limb or other damage, and the sawyer simply figured it didn't matter since it wasn't rotten.
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