brookeroy Posted December 17, 2014 Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 Help! I tried refinishing my 13 ft older oak table. I stripped with Citristrip, sanded with 120 twice, scrubbed down with mineral spirits, and sanded again with 220, twice and wiped down. Then I put a 50/50 cut of bullseye unwaxed shellac/ denatured alcohol. Then I started putting on the Java (General Finishes) Gel stain. It didn't take well. I tried to restain to darken it and the second staining actually wiped off the first stain and it is very blotchy. What have I done wrong???? I tried to research each step and do it right. Afraid to continue and have an incredible back ache???? Can I sand back to what I thought was raw wood and start over???? Maybe I didn't nead to use the Shellac as a pre-stain. Ugh!!! I needed to strip to the base oak because there are 8 leaves and the used part of the table was really gummy and oxidize to dark. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 Too much sealer under the stain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Tarbell Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 Too much sealer under the stain. Sounds logical. Would you recommend sanding the shellac down a bit and trying again or sanding it completely off and applying a new thinner coat? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pwalter5110 Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 I am by no means a professional, but I wouldn't jump from 120 grit to 220 while sanding. That has little to do with the table not taking stain. As far as that goes, I agree with wdwerker. Probably too much sealer. Again, in my unprofessional opinion, I wouldn't seal oak before staining. Oak usually stains pretty evenly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Tarbell Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 Oak usually stains pretty evenly. I'm also far from a professional and the only experience i have with staining oak is using danish oil on red oak. In that experience and with what i've read online i gathered that oak can come out as splotchy due to the extremely open and wide pores soaking up large amounts of stain. This causes those areas to appear much darker than the areas with less grain pores. Edit: nevermind, more research made this appear to be a non-issue. Here's a seemingly decent article that gives tips on staining oak. http://www.americanwoodworker.com/blogs/techniques/archive/2009/10/29/tips-and-techniques-for-fantastic-oak-finishes.aspx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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