Table staining advice.

[mayr08]

Hi,

I am very new towoodworking and as a project I wanted to restain my kitchen table. I believe it is pine and my plan is to sand it back quiet a bit and then stain it a darker colour to match other items within the kitchen, probably a walnut shade. My question is, what process do I need to go through? I have purchased colron american walnut stain, but do I need to put anything onto the wood before applying the stain and anything after the stain.

From watching some youtube videos I seen that some people mentioned that when staining pine it can become blotchy. I would obviously like to avoid this so any help that could be given would be great.

Thanks.

 

[profchris]

A coat or two of shellac, sanded back to smooth once dry, should help reduce the blotchiness with is cause by pine taking up more stain on some places than others.

Be aware that your final colour depends on a combination of the stain and the wood to which it is applied - it probably won't look exactly like the picture on the tin! If there is a patch of the underside you can test it out on, I'd do that first.

Others here know much more about staining, and they will probably advise on further techniques to get an even colour.

 

[woodhutt]

Basically, what Chris said above. You need to apply a wash coat over the whole surface to avoid 'splotching'.
It's also important to select the type of stain you are going to use. If you use shellac (preferably de-waxed) as a wash coat you will need to avoid alcohol based stains. Best choice IMO would be a gel stain over the wash coat. This does not penetrate too deeply and works well on softwoods like pine.
Pete

 

[Brian C]

If you don't mind my hijacking this thread for a similar question: I'm looking at making a desk next week and wanted some staining advice. I have PAR Softwood from Covers, but unsure of whether i should treat the wood before applying the stain. From the sounds of things the wash coat is just a very thin coat of whatever stain is being used?

 

[woodhutt]

No, the wash coat is applied before any stain in order to get even penetration of the stain and avoid 'splotching'. There are a lot of different materials that can be used for pre-staining/finishing, often going under the name of 'sanding sealer', but you need to select one which will be compatible with the finish you intend to apply. Some sanding sealers contain zinc stearate which makes it unsuitable for use with polyurethane finishes, for example.
In the case above, the recommendation is to use de-waxed shellac as a wash coat then apply the stain.
Pete