I’ve been experimenting with mixing my own wood stains. I mostly like the results, but there’s been a problem I can’t figure out. After applying the stain, I find that I need to watch over the wood and continually wipe it down otherwise I get these nibs or stain clots on the wood.
I’ve attached a couple of photos to show. It’s like the stain has undissolved particles which pool together as it dries. I can manage it if I periodically wipe down the stain as it’s drying which seems to smooth things out.
The process I’m using is mixing a combination of 50-50 BLO and turpentine with artist oil paints and Ottosson linseed oil paints for color. I also add a few drops of Japan Dryer.
I’m putting the stain on wood that has a 1.5lb cut shellac seal. And then I put a coat of 1lb shellac over followed by Waterlox.
I haven’t had this issue with the commercial stains so seems it’s my homemade stain causing it. Should I need strain the mixture before using? Or is this expected and I just need to wipe down and sand more before applying top coats?
Replies
The photo on the right seems to show the nibs to be much more pronounced in the soft grain. Thus, it is not a stain issue, but the wood itself. Could this be the result of not raising the grain before the final sanding?
I did try raising the grain beforehand, but it's definitely possible I missed spots. The wood in the photos is new yellow pine, but I have also seen the same behavior on old growth pine and an old door with veneer. Do you need to raise grain on those types of wood too?
Yes, especially on pine and poplar
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