staining fir door

Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner should solve your problem it works great for me.

-- Only the Shadow knows....................

Sorry… If you don’t have the time to test an unknown combination, you have time to do it again.

Blotchy woods can be dealt with with a dewaxed shellac (Zinnser Seal Coat or shop-mixed dewaxed flakes) washcoat. The washcoat prevents the stain from penetrating unevenly and blotching. This will usually result in a lighter stain color, so a darker shade of stain or multiple coats of a tinted clear coat (Polyshades or lacquer) may be needed. A coat of “natural” stain or thinned varnish, which is essentially what “natural” stain is, can also accomplish the same thing. I like shellac because it dries really fast and isn’t dissolved by oil based stains.

I often prefer a lighter Solar Lux dye, followed by Seal Coat, followed my sprayed Mohawk or Behlen stains, with Seal Coat between each stain layer. If you don’t like a stain coat, you can wipe it right off the shellac.

-- - Real men read directions

Thanks John and BeechPilotBarry,

The color we are attempting to apply is a medium brown. I have used the Zinnser Seal Coat and had good results with lighter stain for popping the grain on figured wood, but pretty much leaving the wood close to its natural color.

With an initial coat of Zinnser Seal Coat or Miniwax pre-stain conditioner, will I be able to apply a medium brown stain effectively?

Dalec

This is only a thought, so PLEASE test first. You could try a coat of clear poly first. Then go over it with poly shades. Also, the polyshades is REALLY thick. Spots will look splotchy sometimes just because if you don’t get a perfectly even coat, the thicker parts will be darker. I know that the instructions say not to thin it, but I had luck thinning it. I used it on my project here href="http://lumberjocks.com/projects/9627">. You’ve really got little choice but to test.

Thanks HokieMojo. I normally have the time to test whatever I think I will be using before applying it on the final product. It takes more time, but it is better to take the time than to ruin something I may have invested a lot in materials and efforts for lack of testing.

My concern now is with either the pre-sanding sealer or Zinnser Shellac, I can get medium brown I want and still avoid the blotchy look.

Dalec

The pre-stain wood conditioners work good.

-- My favorite piece is my last one, my best piece is my next one.

“With an initial coat of Zinnser Seal Coat or Miniwax pre-stain conditioner, will I be able to apply a medium brown stain effectively?”

You’d have to try your stain over Seal Coat on your wood. I usually use Mohawk or Behlen products, which dry quickly and handle differently. Some home center stains won’t dry properly over a sealed surface. Someone else mentioned that Polyshades might show different shades due to differing finish depths. That’s a good point, and is why most tinted clear coats are best sprayed on blotchy woods.

One of the photos in this thread shows stained oak. Oak is a very easy wood to stain, and will not demonstrate the same issues as fir. Success on oak has nothing to do with how a finishing schedule will perform on other woods.

I’ve never had good enough results on a test panel with wood conditioners, on actual blotch-prone wood (fir, pine, cherry, birch, maple…), to actually use them on a project. It still blotched, only in a lighter shade.

-- - Real men read directions