# Staining pine and plywood



## Moosesman (Jul 18, 2011)

I have a little chest I'm working on and it is made from Pine and birch plywood. I put some min wax early American on it and it is really blotchy with what looks like black spots in some areas. Is this from not enough sanding or just characteristics of pine and plywood ? I have had a similar issue with pine on another project using a medium dark stain. I have had better results with just using poly on pine for more natural look. Has anyone had similar issues with pine or am I just nutty


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## conifur (Apr 1, 2015)

Thats the pine and plywood, cherry and a few other hard woods can be too.


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

Pine is notoriously blotchy, I never stain pine any more because of the problems.


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## tomsteve (Jan 23, 2015)

on pine what do to get an even finish is spray mineral spirits on the surface prior to staining. wipe off tbe excess. then apply the stain. this alows the stain to soak in evenly across the surface resulting in a blotchless finish.


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## conifur (Apr 1, 2015)

Tomsteve, learned something knew, even I dont work with either too much, makes sense though, evens out the absorption rate with the natural oils/sap in the wood.


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

A laquer sealer works for this too.


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## OSU55 (Dec 14, 2012)

Glue sizing (pva glue reduced 4 or 5 to 1 with water, same as Charles Neil's conditioner) with really help. Slop it on, let it soak in several minutes, keeping surfaces wet, wipe it off. Lightly sand the raised grain 220-320 after drying, apply stain - water or oil base.


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## pjones46 (Mar 1, 2011)

Tomsteve, thanks for sharing as I have learned something new today. As Conifur said, makes alot of sense for oil based stain and I will have to try it.


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## benchbuilder (Sep 10, 2011)

you can use wood conditioner also and get it at lowes or other home centers, it may also be at paint stores.


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## tomsteve (Jan 23, 2015)

> Tomsteve, thanks for sharing as I have learned something new today. As Conifur said, makes alot of sense for oil based stain and I will have to try it.
> 
> - pjones46


yeah, i shoulda added good for oil based stains. prolly not for water based.


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## tomsteve (Jan 23, 2015)

> Tomsteve, thanks for sharing as I have learned something new today. As Conifur said, makes alot of sense for oil based stain and I will have to try it.
> 
> - pjones46


yeah, i shoulda added good for oil based stains. prolly not for water based. 
heres an example on pine










one thing it can do is lighten up the shade of the stain a bit.


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## CB_Cohick (Dec 22, 2014)

> Glue sizing (pva glue reduced 4 or 5 to 1 with water, same as Charles Neil s conditioner) with really help. Slop it on, let it soak in several minutes, keeping surfaces wet, wipe it off. Lightly sand the raised grain 220-320 after drying, apply stain - water or oil base.
> 
> - OSU55


I have used this as well with good results. It is inexpensive to make, and will keep forever.


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## Moosesman (Jul 18, 2011)

Thanks for all the great advice. I will definitely put it to good use on next project. I may even try to sand down what I've already done on this one and put it to use but may just paint over it at this point.


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## Moosesman (Jul 18, 2011)

This is a picture of the trunk 








This is after I sanded some of the stain off. It looked pretty bad. 
This is a piece of the same plywood with a small sample of minwax wood conditioner on the bottom and none on top. You can definitely see the difference. 








My wife decided she wants the trunk distressed and at this point I was ok with that hoping to save the blotchy stain job. It is a gift for her daughter and that's the look she likes. 
I was messing with same scrap I did the little wood conditioner test on and sprayed white spray paint over it and wiped it off immediately then took same stain as before and went over it a couple times and got this. 








I thought this looked good kinda strange way to get it but looked good. We ended up using that pattern but more distressed and came up with this.


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