when you prep a deck by hand, wheter it be cookies, brass scraper, razor blade, block and paper, your goal is not to remove the stains. if you remove the stains, your going to create a very untrue surface.
Now if you actually have it decked, yes the stains being taken care of isnt an issue since its all going to be flat and true in the end. by hand it wont be flat
Completely agree with this, and sorry for the misunderstanding. Way too many people get too aggressive with trying to clean the block surface and end up making things worse.
I went at mine with a 2"x14" honing stone and didn't get all the stains out, and I would never recommend trying to use hand tools to make the block surface look like its been decked.