· When there is a need to removing stains from woods to be finished or refinished, such as rust stains, water and weather stains.
· When the wood you have is too dark for a particular project. In this case, removing some of the color from the wood might make it more suitable, or would allow you to stain the wood to a lighter color.
· When you have several boards of the same wood for one project and they vary in color. In this case, you can bleach one or more of the boards to match the others. Or, you might bleach all the boards and stain them to a consistent color.
· When you want to stain one wood to look like another. Removing the natural color from a wood makes matching the color of another wood easier. If you bleach both woods, you can stain them both the same color.
· When old stained and varnished surfaces are stripped off, removing all the old finish possible the wood is sometimes found to be too dark to take the new stain of light color and make a nice job. Then bleaching is resorted to.
· Bleaching is the first step in matching old wood that has changed color from exposure to light.
· Use wood bleach when you have removed the finish from a piece of furniture or hardwood floor and found black stains or black rings from metal pots. Or, you have found black or deep brown pet urine stains in the wood, which no amount of sanding will take out. These are all iron stains caused by the chemical reaction of tannic acid in the wood mixing with the trace metals in urine and water.
Note: There are 3 types of wood bleach commonly used on the market (See "Types of Wood Bleach" section). This site is focused mainly on the 2-part A/B, hydrogen peroxide/sodium hydroxied wood bleach system.