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I’m currently building a nightstand for my mother. It’s made of hard maple and I’m using a mixture of Minwax golden oak and colonial maple stain for color 1:1. Then I’ll go over that with Varathane diamond wood finish. I may put a coat or two of tung oil varnish on before I do the top coat of Varathane but haven’t decided yet.
Anyway, for years I’ve almost exclusively used tung oil varnish on all my projects and am fairly new to staining, imagine that. I’m getting blotchy results with my stain. I did use Minwax prestain wood condintoner and I’m still getting blotchyness. I’m sure there is some simple fix, like adding spit to the stain, or something. What gives here?
Jeffrey
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Jeffrey,
I've always had excellent results with Min Wax Wood Finishes (the oil based products) and have never found the need to use any conditioner or sealer on hard woods. I've never experienced "blotchyness".
In large part, I think this is because I use smoothing planes, cabinet, and card scrapers instead of sanding in surface preparation. On really tight grain woods like Maple, if I do use a stain, I will brush it on then let it stand for 10-15 minutes then rag off the excess with a soft, clean, cotton rag. In effect "rubbing in" the stain to even out the tone.
I suspect that the "conditioner" that you used is part of the problem, not keeping the stain well mixed could be another contributing factor here. Am I correct in making the assumption that this blotching is on a test piece? If so, try another test using the above techniques with out the "conditioner".
Knowing the exact Min Wax products that you used would be of tremendous help in finding a fix, especially if this blotching is on the actual piece. FWIW.
Dano
*Dan,Unfortunately the blotching is on the piece, the top to make it worse, a perfect bookmatch. But the top is all that is stained at this point.I used Minwax golden oak #210B and minwax colonial maple #223, mixed together 1:1. I did flatten the top with a smoothing plane but then stupidly went to sandpaper 150, 180, then 220. It had a few tearout spots that I should have planed away but the top was already thinner than I would have liked it. Any suggestions on a "fix"? Could I spot stain the lighter areas to even it out? The blotching is not the worst and it ccould pass for ok but I'd like to even it out. Plus learn a bit more about finishing. Jeffrey
*Jeffrey, ohhh, ouch, and all that.Well, I see you did use the oil based stains so these are the ones I'm most familiar with. Understand, that this is howi I would fix this little problem and given the fact that I can't actually see the piece. What I would do is rag on the stain working it into the lighter areas and "feathering" into the darker ones by dipping a corner of the rag into the stain. 'Bout the size of a "boulder", remember those from your marble playing days? Use all the stain adsorbed by the rag before re-charging. So, I think you are on the right track. Proceed very cautiously here. You might want to recreate the situation on some scrap pieces first to get the hang of it.Dano
*Dan,Thanks for your input. I'll give it a hopeful try!Jeffrey
*Jeffrey and Dano, I just did a project using Hemlock Fir. I used the minwax pre stain because it was recommended for use on softwoods to make the stain more even. On a test piece, I brushed on the stain then rubbed it to the desired effect with a balled up soft cotton rag. While I got very even staining results I also got the blotches. The blotches looked like they might if I had gotten glue on the wood but I hadn't. The wood was freshly planed an scraped so I don't know what I might have done to better prep it.On another test piece, I did not use the prep and I got far less blotch. I suspected that it had something to do with the sap's in the wood but now that I hear your having problems with hard maple I not sure.Do your blotches appear right away or after say 15 minutes or so. Mine take a few minutes to show up which is why I suspected sap.Steve
*Steve,You probably won't believe this but, when I use Hemlock I never seal it, never have. Our home is trimmed out with Hem Fir, stained with Min Wax's Golden Pecan Wood Finish (oil base) no blotches.The problem you guys are having are due in part to finish preparation, especially yours Steve. Don't know what exactly Jeff's result from my prior replies are yet so that can't be confirmed yet. Pretty sure on yours, though.Dano
*Dano, I believe, I believe.... Figured my problem out. The hem fir I'm using stains great when its just sanded to 150 then stained. Seems I was tightening up the grain too much when I scrapped it.Thanks.Steve
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