sharpie pen on oak table!

[JaxTellerIsMyFriend]

I am so cross, DD was drawing yesterday evening and despite being told not to draw on the table without the plastic table cloth underneath she did - lo and behold bloody pen went through paper and there are little red and green and black pen marks on my new table.

The 'rule' is that all painting, drawing, craft stuff that is done at the table is fine - so long as the 'craft' table cloth is on the table, if it is not she puts it on first.

How the feck do I get it off without ruining my table?

anyone?

is it a solid oak table, or veneered?

how old is it?

is the top varnished, waxed, or french polished?

Have you tried baby wipes? That worked for me on sealed floorboards (in a holiday house - I had heart failure when I saw the 'beautiful drawing' DS had done )

this suggests you can remove it with cotton wool and rubbing alcohol (methylated or surgical spirit is the UK equivalent)

Mine is varnished, and has some pen marks on it. They have penetrated the varnish.

I have chosen to see my ruined table as a souvenir of their childhood. I have the same rule as you but mine are very small so it is up to me to make sure they are on the tablecloth.

If it is waxed you could sand it back?

permanent pen will come off with acetone, but so will the varnish.

You will need an alcohol of some sort (acetone, meths, white spirit etc).

However I don't know how that will affect the wood.

It is solid oak, not varnished, think it is oiled/waxed and I recently did it with method wood cleaner, smells of almonds. I will try baby wipes and if that doesnt work will attack it with some kitchen cleaner. I dont have acetone here - even my nail varnish remover is acetone free.

Thanks all.

you can get 100% acetone for about £2 in Home Bargains ATM, it's for getting off false nails so a bottle is a lot easier to get hold of these days :)

You could try hairspray - that shifted pen marks for me, but didn't dissolve varnish

Hairspray is a good suggestion actually.

update! Have tried hairspray which did help reduce the pen marks a lot and then made a paste with bar keepers friend which has also helped. Not totally disappeared, but very faint now.

Will keep on doing it and then will re seal the wood with my method stuff. And then I am covering my table with the huge plastic table cloth to protect it from the little darlings until they leave home!

thanks.