Staining/Colouring Satin Varnish

[Geoff_S]

I hold my hands up, I got lazy

I needed to make a bookcase but lack of enthusiasm led to me buying a “kit”. And I have to say I am very pleased with it.

But, I thought it was arriving unfinished, my mistake, it has a coat of satin varnish. The thing is it is a pine and I need to get it to a light oak. I know that stain won’t work unless I take the varnish off.

So will a coloured wax work? Are there other options that don’t involve stripping off the satin varnish?

TIA

---

 

[Cabinetman]

You can add a few drops of this to poly varnish, never tried it on top of a coat of untinted varnish but I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t work.
The colours aren’t wood ones though so you may need to experiment a little. I stained some Ash a wonderful Turquoise colour once!

 

[johnnyb]

That will be acid cat lacquer I bet. Anything on top risks not sticking properly. Unless you give mechanical key and a test.(use the sellotape test)