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Close-up of a cigar plank, showing residue of an unknown polymer

I just bought a cigar plank from a thrift shop. Two of the molds have some residue of an unknown polymer, which I want to remove.

It's about the middle of the board, so perhaps it's some elastic glue that held something in place to hang it by.

I've scraped a lot of it off, but I can't get it all this way.

The molds are untreated wood. How do I remove this residue?

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  • @aaron's Answer has it, that's pretty much the only way to try to remove residue of this kind. After you find the right solvent of course. You mention the residue was elastic, was it kind of springy and stringy when pulled? If so it could be rubber cement (actually the first thing I thought of seeing the pic). It should be mentioned that because the rest of the piece is bare wood you may find it very difficult to completely erase all sign of the contamination as some can have soaked into the wood fibres on a microscopic level, and that's much harder to remove than the stuff on the surface. – Graphus Feb 7 '19 at 18:57
  • yeah i would expect some permanent staining. – aaron Feb 7 '19 at 20:46
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This sounds like adhesive residue, and if so, it will be removable with the right solvent. There is no way to tell by looking at it which one, although common solvents are aliphatic hydrocarbons (heptane, naphtha, mineral spirits), ethyl acetate, MEK, and acetone.

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  • Denatured alcohol is another solvent that would be worth trying. Also possibly ammonia. – SaSSafraS1232 Feb 7 '19 at 19:41
  • It's also possible that a heat gun would help remove it. – SaSSafraS1232 Feb 7 '19 at 19:41

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