Getting rid of the redness in larch

woodieallen · 20 Aug 2022

A local tree-surgeon convinced me to buy some larch that he'd recently planked up. I commented about the redness but he said that it would weather to a nice grey colour which was what we were after. True. It did. Eventually. Lovely colour. Until the next rain shower when it went back to its ghastly orange-red. I've tried neat bleach. I've tried mixing up some watery NHL lime. I thought about oxalic acid until a few Youtube videos showed that it only got rid of stains and took the wood back to its original colour !

I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions ? The tree-surgeon has moved from the area

rogxwhit · 20 Aug 2022

The colour is from nature - embrace it.

Beatsy · 20 Aug 2022

Staining with a hint of green will push red woods to brown. It's a colour-wheel thing.

Not sure what would happen if the red subsequently faded though.

woodieallen · 20 Aug 2022

rogxwhit said:
The colour is from nature - embrace it.

Or burn it

woodieallen · 20 Aug 2022

Beatsy said:
Staining with a hint of green will push red woods to brown. It's a colour-wheel thing.

Not sure what would happen if the red subsequently faded though.

Thanks for that...will give it a try.

whereistheceilidh · 21 Aug 2022

Bring it up to Scotland, It seems to go grey very speedily here... permenantly...... unless, of course, you have used it for something ......

joshvegas · 23 Aug 2022

the vinegar and wire wool should take it down a notch, not sure why you'd want to though.

XTiffy · 19 Oct 2022

I would always steer clear of vinegar and wire wool as a combination. Small particles of the wire wool will adhere and cause staining. This is particularly true on oak as it reacts with the tanin and causes tiny black stains. The strongest bleaches are the two-part hydrogen peroxide types (Typically called A&B bleach) from polishing supply houses (Mylands, Jenkins,Fiddes etc. in the UK). It is also possible to combine them with oxalic acid as an activator.