Help, just finishing staining my latest project, stood back and decided the color was too red and too dark after all. In there anyway to change the color of stain once it has been applied, wiped off and dried? If it matters, it was a tradtional oil based stain. Can I use wood bleach or someother product to essentially undo what I did with the stain or am I stuck with my mistake for ever and ever?
Any thoughts or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Replies
Was it a dye or a pigment type stain? Dye stain can be removed using fresh chlorine bleach. Pigment can't. If you just want to tone down the red use the complementary color. (I don't have my color wheel here). But, this will not lighten the color.
If it is a pigment stain, you can try using mineral spirits and a gray scotchpad. Wipe and the wipe dry using paper towels. If that doesn't work, you may have to go to a paint remover containing methylene chloride and remove the finish.
It is a pigment stain, which sounds like that it going to make it harder to correct my mistake. On the bright note, I certainly learned a lesson to verify the stain color 2x instead of just once.
Once an oil stain dries you need a solvent to dissolve the oil and remove color. You can use lacquer thinner (or stripper) and scotchbrite or coarse steel wool to scrub color off pretty quickly - not all the color will come off, but most of it will. The long, slow method is to use mineral spirits as the solvent which doesn't dissolve the stain like lacquer thinner. Or, you can sand the stain off.Paul
F'burg, VA
Wash it with lacquer thinner to see if it will lighten up enough. If you used solid wood,you might just sand off the stain. Blue and green are used to kill red but they will both darken the color Also, Colors do generally appear lighter after you put a clear finish over the stain
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled