Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Stain turned wood green

I have a problem. I decided to have my table refinished rather than buying a new one. I still like it, but the finish was getting pretty bad. Its a beautiful honey gold that I wanted to keep.

I took it to the refinisher. He stripped the table and restained it. But something went wrong, and the stain he used suddenly turned from the right color to a dark reddish color. So he had to strip it again. This time it came out right ... mostly. I just got it home and noticed that there are green tinged patches in it - not spread evenly across the table. The nature of the color and patches make it seem to be a discoloration of the wood, though I suppose it might be a stain issue.

Have you heard of this happening before and do you know of a solution? I am hoping to learn something before taking it back to him.

Thanks for any help.

Not sure, but the wood is probably poplar, which has greenish grain segments in it which will stain differently than the remainder of the wood. Is the final stain light or dark?

My guess is whatever method he used to strip the table, dipping or stripper, left a residue in the wood that chemically reacted with the stain. Dipping in a well used diptank can create a"tea" that stains the wood as you mention. So...in taking it back, my recommendation would be to strip it again, remove the residue, bleach the table with oxalic acid in boiling hot water, twice, rinse a half dozen times until the bleach is out, and then restain. IF the oxalic does not work, there are two part bleaching agents that will. Now whether or not the table top can survive the treatments, wood wise, is a question, if it is veneer perhaps not.

Bill

He didn't dip it - he spread a fluid that turned the finish to goo. I assume thats a stripper. It doesn't sound like the "tea" option. Can strippers have strange reactions that create a greenish tinge too?