A friend of mine is buying a house with a light oak wood stair step that has a large green stain on it from food coloring. Short of replacing the stair tread, do you have any suggestions for removing the stain and restoring the stair? The stain has definitely penetrated the wood.
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I'd try sanding it out, or scraping it using a sharp plane iron or chisel vertically (cabinet scraper would be better, if you have one), or a paint scraper. But the key is SHARP. You just want to remove a thin shaving of wood. Then sand until smooth, restain, and finish.
If it's so deep that this doesn't work, you'll probably have to replace the tread.
If, as you say, the food coloring has penetrated into the oak, bleaching may help. You could start with just household bleach. If that doesn't work, you may try oxalic acid (don't breathe it, wear gloves and eye protection) (if I recall correctly, you make a wet paste and keep it wet for a while, then rinse it (don't remember if you have to neutralize it, but maybe wouldn't hurt to rinse it with baking soda in water, followed by just clear water).
After bleaching, if the color that's left is too apparent, you might try just a very dilute red wood dye or even something like diluted red mohagany stain and the red will reduce the intensity of green, making it more brown and maybe less noticeable (just be careful you don't end up with a dark brown or red stain instead of a green one!)
I was even wondering if adding red stain to make the old stain brown before bleaching it may be best--that way you'd be bleaching a uniform brown stain, but I think that may just add to your problems--the bleach may completely remove the food coloring.
Could you take a router and plow out the affected area say 1/8" deep and then inlay a patch and finish to match.
Sand the entire tread and restain it. No big deal really.
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