Comments on: 73- Coloring Blotchy Woods

By: thewoodwhisperer

thewoodwhisperer — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:03:08 +0000

I think your instincts are right on. Multiple coats won’t help. What I would suggest is trying a gel stain in a slightly darker color. The gel stain might help even things out as the color sits on the surface and doesn’t exactly absorb like a regular oil stain. If this doesn’t work, it might be time for a do-over.

Also consider a second option, which may not really work for you depending on your equipment and space. That is, to use HVLP and toners to cover the blotchiness. This method will hide the grain to some extent but will allow you to cover up the unevenness.

By: Tim Leonard

Tim Leonard — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:01:50 +0000

I am staining/finishing french doors(fir) for a customer. We used Minwax wood conditioner before applying the Minwax English Chestnut stain but still got some blotchiness. Customer wants us to put on more coats of stain, which I don’t believe would even out the appearance. Should we consider sanding to bare wood and starting over with a different product or try the multiple coats?

By: thewoodwhisperer

thewoodwhisperer — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:37:45 +0000

Gel stains may contain some poly so you want to check the label. If that’s the case, you would not want to go over top of that with a regular oil stain. It won’t be able to absorb and consequently, won’t dry. But you can indeed go the other way around.

By: Erin

Erin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:56:34 +0000

Thank you for the great video–It was a huge help! I am having some trouble getting the gel stain to match a few other stained pieces though. Is it possible to use an oil based stain (like minwax) on top of a gel stain? Or can you only use a gel stain on top of an oil based stain? Thanks!

By: thewoodwhisperer

thewoodwhisperer — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:52:41 +0000

Well first thing’s first. Don’t experiment on your floor. Go and get yourself a scrap piece of maple, preferably a cut-off from your flooring installation and use that to run some tests. If you are going to seal with shellac, you need to know how much color gets absorbed after the sealing step. That’s something you want to work out first before applying to the entire floor. And yes, the steps you listed will work. But I would personally cut out the grain-raising step. The sealer will probably raise the grain slightly and you can simply scuff sand afterward to smooth things out. Then apply your stain.

By: Sam M

Sam M — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:53:00 +0000

For a maple hardwood floor we have about a 1000 sq ft to sand and stain. Can we sand and waterpop, next day apply the cut seal coat, then use the jell stain? Would that work better or would waterpoping hurt us?

We orginally sanded and waterpoped then stained with a minwax provincial stain with blotchy results. We’re about to resand the floor but I want to make sure we have better results without the blotchiness.

Thanks

By: thewoodwhisperer

thewoodwhisperer — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 17:54:45 +0000

Hi Patti. Generally speaking, its not a great idea to coat a waxed shellac. The SealCoat I recommended is de-waxed shellac so it is compatible with just about any finish. Even water-based finishes are said to be potentially problematic over a waxy shellac. Now there are always exceptions to the rule and I have contested this belief in the a previous video: http://thewoodwhisperer.com/sh.....yurethane/

But despite my pot-stirring, I really don’t think it is worth the risk. Sometimes a finish may appear perfect right after application only to fail a few years down the line. So my recommendation would be to use the dewaxed SealCoat instead.

By: Patti

Patti — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:54:34 +0000

Thanks for the great video… This validates (almost) what I’m about to do with trying to match a crown molding in alder to my existing kitchen cabinets that are alder but I have one question.

I did my test using Zinsser Bulls Eye Shellac (clear) in yellow can see link below… not the Zinsser shellac SEAL Coat that you reference in your video prior to putting on my oil based stain. I did dilute the product (2/1 as instructed). Can you pls confirm that it is ok to use this product vs the SEAL COAT that you used…

After waiting 1 hour with the shellac, I put my ‘custom’ Sherwin William stain (to match my existing kitchen cabinets). Lastly I put 2 coats of minwax water based satin polycrylic on the wood. (PS Sherwin Williams said that they cannot do ‘custom match’ stains w/the gel so I had to use their regular oil stain).

I think it looks good but I’m concerned that you referenced the SEAL COAT product and not the shellac product I used — want to confirm this is ok with the water-based polycrylic tops coats I used. Thank you. Patti

web site that references two types of zinsser shellac product:

http://www.paintinganddecorati.....ellac.html

PS — I asked Sherwin Williams about using the gel stain but I’m having them do a custom match to my existing kitchen cabinets and they said that you cannot use ‘gel’ for custom stains.

By: thewoodwhisperer

thewoodwhisperer — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:32:49 +0000

Well one thing to try is actual wood bleach. You might be able to bleach out some of the pigment/dye that was in the original stain. After that, I would recommend sanding or scraping. If you don’t get rid of the darker spots, they will always be an issue for you. Well, unless you stain the whole thing to match the dark spots. So I’d definitely try bleaching followed by sanding. Or aggressive sanding if need be.

By: Mimi

Mimi — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:13:31 +0000

The video on staining blotchy wood was very helpful but do you have any advice for staining already blotchy wood? I am restoring the entry way of our 1914 built house that has Doug Fir wainscoting and mouldings. They were originally stained dark then painted. I have removed the paint with peelaway7 but the stain is still visible in a lot of areas and where the peelaway overlapped, the wood is bleached out. Do you have any advice to get the wood to a consistent color before I restain and finish?