Sherwin BAC and wiping poly help

Wipe-on poly is compatible with the stain. I am a little surprised at the dry time however. Generally I will give oil base stains overnight to dry. But stain lift off, as you are describing, is due to the compatibility of the stain and topcoat since they are both oil base products. With both being oil base products the poly will naturally dissolve the stain.

To prevent this you can either (1) give the stain a longer drying time or (2) seal the stain with a coat of 2 lb shellac before applying the polyurethane. Either one of these approaches should help to prevent the lift off. When using oil base stains I will usually let them dry overnight and then apply a seal coat of shellac before applying wipe on poly.

By the way I am assuming that you did wipe off the excess stain and let it dry before applying the poly. Another cause of lift off is excess stain on the wood. I have run into this when trying to get a darker coloring of the wood. Here a seal coat of shellac is a good way to prevent lift off.

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine

Sherwin Williams BAC is a professional product vs. minwax and other similiar stains. It is designed to dry quickly. It is an excellent product but I usually spray pre-cat laquer on top. I wish I had tested it first. Thanks for the shellac advise. I’ve used Zinnser Seal Coat before but for some reason didn’t use it in this situation.

Amen to the above – BAC dries very fast, 10 minutes working time but suggest you check the S-W Chemical Coatings fact sheets CC-F56 at SW web site. They recommend “use under spray applied S-W sealer and topcoats.”

-- Regards, Steve2