Alright, so my son (14 years old) wanted a new desk in his room. "Black top, wood bottom," says he. To avoid a trip to Ikea and prove a point to him that I could make it for less and make it 100X better with a little elbow grease.... The top is done. Solid southern yellow pine, glued up, finished with black lacquer paint and about 4-5 coats of polyurethane in prep for the Coke cans and sweaty McDonald's cups. Then I went and picked up a nice 2x12 for the legs and aprons. By nice, I mean very straight grain down the middle of the tree. I glued the legs up to make 2 1/4" squares, but the aprons are some great quartersawn material. The only problem is the gray stains. Yeah, I bought it at Home Depot. I was thinking the stains were only surface blemishes and would disappear as I milled and planed the pieces. Wrong was I! These stains run all the way through. So, my question is, now that I've got about half way thru the making of the base.... Is there anything I can do to remove the gray stains?? If not, I'm looking at either a gray stain or painting in which case I have failed miserably in making myself look better than Ikea (to a 14 year old). Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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