I buy the dented cans of stain at my home center all the time and as a result I have a bout 17 different cans of stain in my tool room. I used a few of them and then sealed them back up. DO they expire or go bad after a certain length of time?
Thanks.
Replies
bill
I am hoping that someone will reply with a tehcnical answer. I too have accumulated a lot of different dented cans of stain when I found them cheap. In my experience, in those that contain pigment, like Minwax, the pigment eventually settles to the bottom and gels, making it difficult to re-suspend the particles to get the same color as new. I've still used the stain, but not if trying to match the color of an existing workpiece.
I've used some amazingly old Watco and it has worked fine. Only the cans that were sealed tightly with no air leaks (those get very gunky). As mentioned above, it needs to be thoroughly mixed. A little testing can't hurt.
Given how much space these cans take up, I've gone to only buying them when I need 'em, but then I don't often see scratch-n-dent bargains to be tempted with either.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
I would try the stuff on some old scrap and see what happens.. But then again I'm cheep!
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled