okay, school me on staining wood furniture

[heygrey]

i've been googling, but i seem to find two sets of information - 1) the average DIY blogger who can't give complete instructions, or 2) a company pimping their product. 

i have a kitchen table that is currently raw pine. i want a colour somewhere in the Minwax Dark Walnut range. it's also the farmhouse style made famous by Ana White so i don't want it to look too perfect. definitely not a high gloss sheen. 

Minwax Polyshades looks amazing because you can skip the poly step at the end, but we tried it once several years ago and it was a disaster. we didn't use a wood conditioner though and i'm wondering if that's why it was super blotchy and wouldn't spread well? or is it just a nice concept, but a shitty product.

so what brands do you use? we seem to only have Minwax and Varathane products readily available here (aside from the walmart house brand which i'm not interested in trying). since i'm not super interested in calling every potential stain seller in our small city, i'm happy to choose from home depots small offering. 

just tell me everything you know or have experienced. i'd really like to do this right and not ruin our first real building project. 

and thanks :-) 

[OrangeBanana]

You definitely have to always use wood conditioner with pine before staining. That was probably your mistake on the last project. Also I really dislike the stain that has poly in it especially for a piece that will have lots of use.

I use a lot of Minwax products and really like their gel stain. It will give a darker richer color right away versus the regular stain. It can be a little tricky to work with but just practice a bit and you will be okay. You just have to make sure to wipe off any extra right away to avoid the streaky look.

As for a protective poly...try a matte finish. I have use that a lot on projects that I don't want to look shiny or more rustic. And definitely several coats of it just to improve the protection of your new table. Also consider getting a piece of glass cut to top the table with. That will help keep it really nice longer too!

[FoxInFiji]

Yes pine doesn't stain well. The lighter the stain the better it will look but even then it will be somewhat blotchy. Pine is often just clear coated because of this. It's also a very soft wood so avoid a poly-stain combo...actually avoid that all together. That stuff is just not a good idea. Your other issue is that you probably just got construction grade pine right? Ana White uses that stuff all the time but it's not at the low kiln dried moisture levels you want in furniture grade wood so it will only be harder to get a good even finish color.

A solvent based stain will penetrate the wood better and give you a darker color without sitting on the top like gel stain.  The issue with solvent based and high sap content wood like pine is that the solvent softens the sap pockets and those areas absorb more stain.  So you could either go with a water based and have a lighter color or use a solvent based wood conditioner before using solvent based stain and get a deeper color.  The key is to apply the solvent based stain before the wood conditioner is completely dry.  Wood conditioner is solvent with a clear resign so all of the sap pockets absorb the conditioner and then you apply the stain.  The stain color will generally be lighter though because of this so test on some scrap first and possibly start with a dark color to begin with.  Minwax makes solvent based stains but a simple call to a local lumber yard or specialty wood shop like Woodcraft would be my first choice. Old Masters has been our go to stain and poly for all of our finishing. We get it at a local paint store but they are also sold at some True Values. They have a store locator that might be worth checking out before you give up on finding a good quality stain:
www.myoldmasters.com/store-locations.htm


For a piece of furniture you're going to use daily and made out of such a soft wood you'll want a bunch of layers of poly on it. At least 3 would be a good place to start. Sand between layers with a bi-directional sandpaper made for poly (3M makes a gray and white sandpaper for this). You could also use sanding sealer for your first coat but a layer of poly is just as easy on a big flat piece like that.

[peach]

I would strip the table and sand it smooth. Wood condition and then stain as many coats as needed. Then I would use wipe on poly, you rubit on with a cloth and sand between coats lightly. I would do 4 or 5 coats. We did the gloss wipe on poly for our kitchen table but my mom loves the satin.

[heygrey]

thanks for all the advice!

FoxInFiji - thanks for the Old Masters rec. there is a store that sells it here. (surprisingly! canada is super hit or miss with the things people love in the states.) i'll check it out this weekend.

[FoxInFiji]

Jun 5, 2013 19:24:42 GMT -5 heygrey said:

thanks for all the advice!

FoxInFiji - thanks for the Old Masters rec. there is a store that sells it here. (surprisingly! canada is super hit or miss with the things people love in the states.) i'll check it out this weekend.

Awesome!  So a few words of advice with Old Masters.  We've been using the wiping stain.  It's a thinner stain that allows you to apply and reapply with touchups blending in very well.  We mixed up two colors and a gallon goes a long way.  For nice quality wood like the cherry we're using for a our trim it only takes one coat but for the non-cherry pieces (birch plywood, pine windows, etc.) it sometime takes a second coat because we're trying to make them look like cherry.  These are not like Minwax in that you need to apply multiple coats to get the color on the can.  So you don't need to buy as much as you otherwise would.  The less coats the better the overall look normally.

Their penetrating stain is thicker and has even more pigment.  It might be a better choice for what you're looking to do.  Talk to the sales clerk they should be able to suggest which one to use.  At our local paint/stain store if you bring in a wood sample they will test stain colors on it for you to decide what to buy before purchasing.

And while you're there see what they have for oil based poly.  Oil based will stand up to a lot more wear and tear than water based.