Layered finish

[Jtblckmaro]

Asked about this on another thread but don't want to totally hijack so here goes.

Saw Norm using a poly/stain mix and got me thinking about a problem I'm having.

Used Marc's shellac seal coat technique on pine, applied a few coats of minwax oil based stain (red mahogany) and now I have nice deep dark absorption on most of the wood, but the grain pattern sealed too much and is still almost a natural pine color.

Tried a gel stain over that to darken up the grain, but still much lighter than the surrounding areas.

So, ultimately my question is:

Typical wipe on mix looks to be 1 part each poly-mineral spirits-BLO.

Since it's an oil based stain, would it be ok to substitute stain for BLO to layer some pigment over the lighter areas, then top oat with straight poly?

Just throwing ideas around, so be gentle with me

[AceHoleInOne]

Not sure about the question but here goes

The pines soft grain took the stain perfect, however, the hard grain didn't take up much at all. You could try topping the stain with a coat of poly. Then when dry scuff with 320 paper and glaze with your stain. This should help some to even the color.

I find with pine, for even color, a dye is a good way to start off, then layer.

-Ace-

[Jtblckmaro]

I have a test board finished like my project piece so I'll give that a try. Took a picture of it but not sure how to post it from my phone.

Wife ended up changing her mind and wants this piece painted anyway.

Can stain be mixed with poly?

[Bombarde16]

The pines soft grain took the stain perfect, however, the hard grain didn't take up much at all.

I've seen this referred to as "grain inversion" and, the darker the stain you apply, the more bizarre it looks.

I find with pine, for even color, a dye is a good way to start off

Dyes generally involve pigments that are ground into much finer particles than the coarse chunks floating around in a can of Minwax. That's the key to getting into both the hard and porous parts of any wood (such as pine) where the density changes so radically from earlywood into latewood.