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I have quite a few pieces of unfinished white pine furniture that I’m ‘attempting’ to apply a pickled-look finish to. I’m using Zar oil based stain.
I have started with the smallest piece, a nightstand. Prior to beginning, I sanded the piece with 220 grit paper, vacuumed and used a tack cloth to removed any dust particles. The piece has accepted the stain well (3 coats so far…desire a white-er look), however I am unhappy with the feel of the finish. It’s not like the grain has raised, but more just a rough texture.
I will need to apply a 4th and final stain coat and am wondering if there’s something that I should do now about the texture? Or should I wait until the last coat of stain is on and dried and worry about smoothing it out after the final stain coat and before the poly (using steel wool)?
Any help here will be appreciated! I’ve got 4 more large pieces to do and don’t want to experience this problem with each piece.
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Elizabeth,
It is difficult to precisely answer your question without me feeling the piece myself. So will do the best I can.
Staining will raise the grain no matter what kind of wood is used. The type of wood determines how much the grain is raised. For pine it is usually recommended that it be sealed first for two reasons, to eliminate blotching and to allow you to sand smooth prior to staining. If the texture is kind of "fuzzy" this is because the wood fibers have been abraded and have raised.
I stopped using tack cloths years ago because they do leave a residue behind. There are some finish manufactures that advise against using them for this reason, Minwax Wipe On poly comes to mind.
Your steel wool approach is good but caution you that steel wool also leave tiny bits of steel behind in the wood and cause problems down the road Garret Wade has cooper wool pads available can't comment on how well they work since I haven't used them.
Without seeing the piece, I would recommend that you use a brush on final finish as it will be heavier and use 320 grit aluminum oxide or 400 grit silicon sanding paper between the coats.
For the remaining pieces sand down to at least 220 grit as before and seal the pieces, lightly resand and proceed with your staining and finishing. Hope this helps.
Dano
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