In the finishes realm there are tons of choices, and to some it can be a daunting task for one who tries to refinish
a hand me down chest of drawers or such. So I hope to shed some light on that
subject for you. Stains are what give wood a tone such as making maple wood look
like cherry. What is the reason for this well one big reason is check the price
of cherry against maple. Maple is cheaper yet very dense and strong and not as
prone to the splotching that cherry wood is susceptible to. But why would I want
to stain cherry with a cherry stain or any stain for that fact. Well one reason
is to make sure that all of the wood matches. Cherry and walnut are different
in one way but the same in another and that is they both can have a variation in the color from one board to the next. Or if you use a plywood and solid wood together they just don’t match sometimes. So we use stains to make it look warmer if you will.
Stains come in three basic forms commercially. There are oil based, water
based, and gel. And recently there has been some come out with varnish added
to them but more on that later.
Oil based finishes are great for coloring wood but the lengthy dry time and the odor is not to pleasant. My experience with these finishes is generally good no real complaints about them as long as you are using
it in a well ventilated area. One draw back is when used on certain woods (i.e.
cherry or pine) you see really pronounced splotching in the finish. Basically
what is happening is the wood has peaks and valleys in it and the stain is settling in the valleys and not as thick on the
peaks so you get the splotchy look. One way to avoid this is to use the gel stains.
Gel stains are, well what it says, a gel. Nice and thick it does not penetrate
as deep as the oil based stains do, but you won’t have the splotchy look when using this type of stain. If you are someone just getting into this I highly recommend using a gel stain it is really idiot proof. No offense to anyone, but it is so simple to use and the results are awesome.
In my opinion the water based stains are the most time intensive stains to use.
The surface prep takes longer which really is a step that you don’t have on the previous two stain types. You should pre-raise the wood fibers with distilled water, let it dry then sand the
raised grain nice and smooth. Then apply your stain the good thing here is there
is a very low odor to these water based stains. Once dry sand it again and re-apply
the finish and let dry again. One final sanding and you are ready for the top
coat.
Want to learn more about finishing? Like what are top coats and sealer coats. Sign
up for our news letters and stay in the loop. Just click on the tab at the top
of the page and we will email these news letters to you. Any questions or comments
please contact me at jamesw@rejamesdesign.com.
-James Wheeldon
