Wood finish turning grey and streaky
Hi all!
Recently I have undertaken a refinishing job on my dining room table that had seen better days. I used varathane gel stain for staining and varathane 1200 matte oil based finish on this piece like I had on all my other work. Oddly enough though, the finish has turned an odd grey colour and is super streaky. Smooth to the touch but with obvious brush strokes from where I used my foam brush to work. I have done many projects before this with the exact same finish and never had any problems previously but I just can’t figure out what’s wrong this time… any help would be amazing, or even any alternatives that could render a similar durable and matte result.
I have attached some photos of what I am talking about but it is hard to capture
Thank you!
Replies
That's a shame.
Total guess, mainly because if I do, this post will stay in the top 6 for longer and I'm curious what the real finishing experts think...
Could the finish have been moisture-contaminated?
I'd try the same batch and method on some scrap and see if it repeats.
Does it do it without the stain?
Does it do it with other stains?
You might have a bad can...
Perhaps the stain was still uncured, and the finish made it streak?
What was the stain and finish, exactly? Oil based stain? Water? What's the finish, besides "oil," which often isn't oil at all.
Did you strip to bare wood? Was the previous finish a factory finish? It is possible that the gel stain produced some kind of chemical reaction with whatever was applied from the old finish creating the grey tone. Furniture factories have who knows what methods to finish furniture with stuff we can't get or know about and applied in no humans involved environments. The streaks might also have happened because whatever was on there was sealing the wood and you couldn't get proper absorption of the stain. I've run into situations like that , chemically case hardened wood, or worse, veneer. I start with shellac, maybe have to blend out streaks with 50/50 alcohol and water and steel wool. I build my finish off of that. Personally I'm not crazy about gel stains. What to do? Do you think you can get what you did off?
My guess would be moisture, either high humidity or in the wood.