Bump

Whenever I refinish a piece, there is always some stain left. It is almost impossible to remove all of it. Some of the old stain soaks in so deep that you cannot sand it out. This is why it is hard to lighten a piece when refinishing, though a bit lighter is possible. I often warn people of this who plan to refinish their wood floors dark - it will never be natural again even with a ton of sanding.

Usually, I apply a new stain which evens out the color. If you want it to be as natural as possible, start with a light stain. Test in an inconspicuous area first. I tried out many different stains when refinishing my cabinets. I found using a gel stain gave me a nice color without soaking into the grain too much - they are oak cabinets and I wanted to keep them light, but not accentuate the grain too much. If you are working with pine or alder you will want to use a pre-stain because those woods naturally stain unevenly and a pre-stain can help limit this. On my pine stairs I used both a pre-stain and gel stain. The downside of gel stains is they can take up to 24 hours to dry which can make a project take longer.

Try bleaching it...consult a high-end paint store re-products made for this...depending on how fine your piece is regular bleach watched closely in application can penetrate to remove unwanted color..if the piece is delicate ...with lots of inlay or tiny boards glued together this may not be a good idea...