h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have a wooden coffee table (lacquard) and a pizza box was place on it but now there is a white stain on it from the heat. How do you get rid of the stain?

Someone once told me to rub it with cigarette ash - might be worth trying on a little section first.

I would first try a "wood oil" soap. Here in the US we have a brand called "Murphy's Wood Oil", if you can't find that or something similar try a lemon oil furniture polish.

Somewhere I have a recipe for a wood cleaner that my mother got from a museum, and it works well. Unfortunately I can't find it, but I do remember that it involved boiling linseed oil and mixing it with turpentine and perhaps one other ingredient. A quick google search shows that there are similar recipes all over the internet so it must be a fairly well-known thing. If the oil soap doesn't work you can try one of those linseed oil recipes, and if I can find our recipe I'll post it here.

The white stain is actually from moisture, not heat, although the moisture penetrated the first layer of lacquer because it was in the form of steam.

Try gently rubbing the area with a soft cloth dampened with denatured alcohol.