What’s happening here?

This table was brand new, not a mark on it, 3 days ago.

It’s now developed some black marks which appear to be IN the wood and are not shifting.

The house (whilst a building site) is warm (not damp) and I have not had anything other than a laptop and tea on a coaster. There has been no work done, or anything I can think that would have caused it

Google is of no help, so I turn to here – any ideas?! I cant get over how engrained in the wood it is; it’s like a pen has leaked into it.

EDIT: This isn’t the only spot, it’s in 3 different places on table already.

Before (bit fuzzy, but the table is clean as a whistle)

Today.

Don’t know but I’ve seen it before and would be interested in seeing what the cause is.

At a guess I’d say that the table has been previously stored in a damp or cold warehouse and bringing it inside to a warm environment has allowed ingrained mould spores to grow and develop in the grain.

I could be totally wrong though ❓

Looks like mould. Is the table made from ash? What material are your coasters made from? Anything odd-looking on the bottom of any of them?

It’s an oak table.

It certainly looks like mould – it also looks very permanent 🙁

It’s not where anything has been sat on either.

The table is Oak and the marks are possibly a chemical reaction between the oak and steel. (You need brass screws when fixing oak)

Could be a fungus activated by heat as mentioned above.

Try lightly sanding it.

Has any wire wool or metal dust/filings etc been near it? Iron/steel reacts with oak like this. Possibly it was finished with wire wool and bringing it inside has caused the reaction.

Yes, tiny specks of wire wool reacting with the tannins in the oak.

Take it back to the retailer.

It’s an eBay job – discontinued John Lewis stock.

Thanks for the suggestions.

The guy seemed the decent sort and it was fine when he delivered it, so I won’t kick off with him; suggestions above makes sense, it’s just that I cannot believe it materialised in 72 hours?

It’s actually to go in a bedroom, so hopefully it won’t get any worse and I can just position the radio/lamp over the worst bit that’s pictured.

What a bugger!

Maybe it came into your house cold from outside and some moisture condensed on it and activated the reaction.

Maybe.

It’s a hell of a quick reaction though!

(I know nothing about wood but) could you nuke it with an anti-fungal?

Sadly these marks are deffo not on the surface. I can best describe it that it appears a fountain pen has leaked into it!

I am a big fan of HG mould spray, but that will just bugger up the wood.

Pretty certain it what tiggs said. Even minute swarf particles will cause this. Although I would of thought being kiln dried ( or indeed suitably handled for furniture use) there’d no tannins left in the wood.
Or it’s mould.

I work with oak as a part-time oak framer. The slightest contact with any ferrous metal (particularly when wet) will leave black marks. I tend to plane them off the big beams I use – often a 1/4mm pass will remove it – but you might not be so keen on a piece of furniture. The other fix is to use some oxalic acid (easily available online) to remove the black marks – but be aware that this may bleach the oak slightly.

You’d be surprised how quickly even just water can start to “blacken” oak – I’ve seen water based filler I’ve (rarely of course 🙂 ) used start to mark the surface if I don’t clean it off and sand it quickly. I have no idea what’s happened here but the wire-wool/moisture theory seems plausible. 72 hours is plenty of time for it to happen.

I’ve seen something like that happen when wooden furniture has been sprayed with Melamine Lacquer and wrapped in plastic when it has dried but not cured (takes a few days to fully harden). Was it wrapped in plastic when it arrived?
Tannin reaction would happen straight away, no?