Thread: Unknown blotching

Looks like it could be mould?

The timber looks to be Beech. Pretty common in chairs and chair legs . This is the wood ID question from your other thread ? The stains are either remaining finish and stain or Iron oxide staining as well . Oxalic acid removes the iron oxide staining if that what it is.

Agree, it’s almost certainly beech.

Could also easily be a She-Oak. (Casuarina family) That wasn't an uncommon timber in Oz furniture either and certainly more obtainable here than Beech if the chair's not an import.

Not sure what you mean by blotchiness... if you mean the dark areas then I agree with Auscab. It's likely finish/stain that penetrated a bit deeper into the end-grain and so is a bit more difficult to remove.

If it's beech, beech is one of the faster spalting/molding woods. I've seen the same thing, but here also on white oak flooring that's gotten wet in the past. A gray cast to the top layer of the wood.

I don't have any good ideas for you if you want to stain it light other than trying your best to get it off of the wood without taking the crispness of the turning away by sanding such "crispness" off.