Working with wood help.....

[polexican23]

Testing out some black stains for a project the CFO wants done around the house.
I am using pine wood, minwax wood finish True black stain and it gave me a rough texture in some spots (see pic right side darker area).
I did sand down the raw board, cleaned after, then used pre-stain conditioner.

#1. What is causing it?
#2. Should I fix it?
#3. Can i fix it?
#4. How do i fix it.
#5. How to avoid on future applications.
It=rough spots



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[gnpenning]

Can't tell with my fancy phone, did the grain raise? If it did that would be normal for pine. Moisten with a damp cloth, give it a little time then sand.

Have you tried anilyne(sp) dye?

Use the conditioner as directed. Any I've used have gone on first. With pine it really helps.

 

[Kaizen]

As said sand and reapply. I thought I wanted black stain on my cabinets and in the end went with a black acrylic paint as I had such issues making the stain look good.


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[hefnerconstructionlc]

Dark stains are tough on light wood. Pine is really hard, I can see the lighter areas from burnishing from the milling process also. You may want to move away from a minwax penetrating style stain. May want to try a limited release stain. It will control the unevenness a little better. Sort of like the stain conditioner mixed in with the stain itself. you will probably have to brush/paint on with foam brush to get most even. The catch is to still allow some grain to show.

The other way is to use a tinted lacquer and spray, which is how most manufacturers are getting that dark even stain color on light woods such as maple.

I would also suggest a local paint shop. They sell stains for the same price, and have lots of good info to get you going in the direction you want.

 

[Smiles79]

I've had a cabinet maker tell me to sand with 0000 steel wool in between coats (and maybe after the last one? I'm not sure). Seemed to work pretty well on the coffee table top I made out of pine last winter.

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[tarbellb]

Likely its raising the grain, any liquid will have this effect on it, especially Pine.

#1. What is causing it? ^^^^
#2. Should I fix it? sure
#3. Can i fix it? Yes
#4. How do i fix it. take some like steel wool, scotch brite, or equivalent and try testing.
#5. How to avoid on future applications- hardwoods are better at not absorbing, start with wood color that matches final color, pay someone else, keep testing.

Good luck. Nice seeing people who care about the details.

 

[polexican23]

i like the burnishing bleed throughs, even when i put on a coat of WipeOn Poly. It has a nice effect to it. The wife might hate it cause she was kind pushing for black black black, but I am cheap and Pine is what I can afford to screw up with.

I will give a light sanding a go and see what happens. Do you guys recommend an orbital sander or just some easy hand sanding?

 

[polexican23]

Can't tell with my fancy phone, did the grain raise? If it did that would be normal for pine..

first time really staining something like this. So i dont know what raised grain would look like. But basically thre is a darker area on the right side of the pic and it feels really rough in that darker area. Like 2 days stubble as a comparison.

 

[Daves69]

Pine is sometimes difficult to get even coverage. Try a different type of stain. I would recommend a gel stain.

 

[Kdfrancis]

I've had a bit of success with using wood conditioner before staining. It helps with pine especially I think. Here is a link explaining it.

 

[JonBoehman]

Pre stain wood conditioner would only help a bit. The issue you have is the spot that isn't taking stain is the Sap wood or Heart wood of the tree. It will be tough to get it to take much stain if any in some cases. You can go back after it dries and try spot staining that location.

 

[ford33]

I personally would not stain pine in a dark color. It is a soft wood and damages easily. When you nick or scratch it, you will notice the marks are very visible with a dark stain.

Try pre-stain wood conditioner. I've used it on pine and have had some success. Pine is not going to accept a dark stain evenly. It is the nature of the wood.

Read the instructions. There is a limited dry and wait time for the product. Also make sure you select the water or oil based conditioner appropriate for the stain type.

Do not apply conditioner excessively. You want to provide a base for the color stain. Too much conditioner makes the dark stain look blotchy and not adhere well.

 

[cgrutt]

Interested to see final solution for this. I am ordering an entrance door for a customer that is made out of Brazilian Mahogany. She wants it stained black. Must be the new thing, lol...

I've had good luck tinting lacquer and spraying for even finish. If you do this, you can also use a blonde shellac which is somewhat better than conditioner and will make everything come out evenly. I've also had luck with alcohol based dyes but you need to work fast to avoid streaks.

Note water and or water based products could raise grain but solvent based products shouldn't.

What are you staining?

 

[rnscustom]

Those areas look like maybe they got wet at some point which will give you darker areas that have a raised grain . Try resanding with 120 grit as a final before staining again . Not a big fan of minwax , sometimes depending on the wood it will show where you start and stop with the rag , commercial finish companies will not warranty their product on top of minwax . Not very many good homeowner stains out there . When doing real dark colors you might want to try a dye stain . Will raise the grain but it will come out in the finish process

 

[joeswamp]

Pine is about the hardest wood to stain, it tends to blotch a lot and it also inverts colors -- the darker wood is about 10x harder than the light soft wood, so the light wood accepts more stain. The grain is obviously pine so it also looks kind of weird when stained dark.

I've had good luck pretreating pine with thinned shellac (to minimize blotching) and then using a light colored oil based stain. Water based stains are known for raising the grain. Supposedly you can paint the wood with water, let the grain raise, and then plane or sand off the raised wood before staining but I've never tried this.

 

[tapered-pin]

use steel wool, nock off the high spots without removing the finish..
sanding the finish down to the untreated wood just starts the grain raising process all over again.

 

[rsanter]

I prefer the gel stains. Epically for the darker colors

 

[jimreed2160]

Sorry to see you are having problems. Almost everything else in woodworking is fixed by trimming or remaking. Finishing has limited alternatives but issues can be mitigated by design.

Modern pine is grown quickly in plantations. In my experience, the resulting product is strong enough and can be milled but does not accept stain consistently. Wood that grows more slowly has fibers that grow tightly in bunches and that wood takes stain more consistently.

One way to "fix" the problem is to avoid it. Lighter stains are generally easier on the eyes because the contrast is less. Dark stains only accentuate the grain distortions. If the customer wants black pine, then it might be best to start with black paint--thinned 50/50. Trials would help you get the proper color. You can then coat the black wood with poly.

 

[southalabama]

I live in a lumber town. Pine lumber.

Pine doesn't stain well. Personally I would change the wood. Even with conditioners it just isn't consistent enough for my tastes.

If you are set on pine paint it and don't stain it.

 

[trainer]

As others have said, pine and dark stain do not mix well.

It's too resinous to get a consistent finish.

You need to have pieces with consistent grain, no knots, and little exposed end grain to even have a chance.

Its best to use a clear finish, a light stain, or paint.