Ron Matthews I am a chemist & worked for many years in the production of carpets as well as other textiles. If at all possible only use soaps, detergents or other commercial/over-the-counter cleaning agents as a last resort. Even if effective, these products will leave a residue even after thorough rinsing (a washing machine will remove most of the residue for normal textiles - shirts, pants, etc.). The soap residue attracts dirt. Water, water combined with rubbing alcohol & full strength rubbing alcohol are very effective cleaning products, especially for carpets where it is difficult to rinse. For a carpet stain, thoroughly wet the stain with either water, water & rubbing alcohol or full strength rubbing alcohol, then take 4-6 thicknesses of paper towels (several thicknesses of toilet paper also works well) & press them onto the stained area - do not wipe, scrub or try to "wipe up" the liquid. Leave the paper towels in contact with the stained area & let it air dry (it my take 1-2 days). This will allow the liquid that it in the carpet backing to wick up into the paper towels as the paper towels or toilet paper dry. If the stain persists, repeat the procedure. I once spilled an entire can of wood stain on a new nylon carpet - none of the above methods worked & I knew a water based detergent would be useless. I used a wood finish solvent called Kutzit - they make a liquid & a gel version - the liquid version works best. I tried it out on a small spot of carpet in the closet to see if it would discolor or harm the carpet - it did not. I used the Kutzit just like described above - only over a larger area & I used cloth cleaning towels instead of paper towels or toilet paper. It really worked well - so well, that my wife didn't notice it - I told her about a year later. If none of the above methods work, then explore any or all of the detergent based cleaners you think might work. Use the same method described above - wet it, cover it, let it dry - do not rub, scrub, or wipe. From personal experience, I have never found a pet stain remover that worked as effectively as water &/or rubbing alcohol. For pet stains, the sooner you get to the stain, the better. If none of these methods works, try the method described above by Marc del Mariana - his information is extremely accurate.

Wooden Wonders Beeswax Butcher Block Conditioner is hands down the best choice for a number of reasons. First it's made from high quality beeswax (normally the end cappings from fresh beeswax) so it's cleaner than the wax most people use. They ship it out quickly and when you order more than one tin at a time you get extra tins shipped to you as a bonus so it's considerably less expensive than Holland Mills product. You can order it on ebay or directly from their website. They don't overcharge for shipping like some places. You also don't have to be worried about getting overcharged for shipping, they routinely refund amounts exceeding their cap which presently considerably less than the cost of a flat rate box... this is great since a flat rate box can hold lots of tins. We use it on both our soapstone counters and all our wooden kitchen butcher blocks cutting boards and utensils. Here is a link that might be useful: Wooden Wonders Beeswax Butcher Block Conditioner

I've been trying some of the chalk paint, mixing my own with Aura and plaster of paris (3:1). I find that my coats come out quite thin, probably because I am treading very cautiously. The second coat went on yesterday. I decided that hopefully they are the thickness of one coat! I do want to rub the layers down a bit and not hit the primer I'd started with before chalk paint came into play. So I'll do yet another of this color, trying to go thicker on the subsequent layers. First coat, I could see the white primer underneath (what you call bleedthrough?). Even with the second coat I could sort of see some white showing in some areas that are more difficult to get good coverage on because they are narrow. I like seeing a little bit of brush stroke. So far, there is none, lol. Didn't want it to look sloppy and unsure of what this paint would do, so I'm probably being too careful! I am liking the look of the paint itself. There was even a little bit of random grit in the last batch but I continued anyway. It will lightly sand off just fine. Think the PoP needed more water. It sets very quickly. Or else some sludge settles if you don't use it all at one time. Not sure yet. The first batch was smooth and creamy but my PoP mix was looser. I had added a little more PoP to the leftover for this second coat, to reduce the sheen more (started with Satin). This post was edited by snookums2 on Mon, Mar 4, 13 at 12:12

yes sand it, but you don't have to remove every trace of the old stain-- just enough to get the shine off and to allow new stain to absorb. A heavier more opaque stain would even out the tone better than something more transparent-- you may want to experiment first.