Reduced stain absorption

[BikerMike]

Working on a project with maple hardwood. Need a crown molding. Found an oak one and did a sample staining but it stained much darker. Any suggestions to reduce the stain absorption would be appreciated. Only need about 10 ft and oak is easily available and acceptable or do I need to purchase maple crown?

[wtnhighlander]

Purchase maple crown. Oak will never look like maple, no matter how hard you try to match. You might bet the colors close, but the texture / grain structure will give it away. 

[Mark J]

Ditto.

[Mick S]

Tritto.

 

[BikerMike]

Thanks. I was figuring that I would have to buy maple but hoped to save the extra cost and time in getting the maple crown.

[Wimayo]

I agree that maple would be your best choice. However, if that is a problem for some reason, you might experiment with another fine grained light colored wood like poplar or basswood to see if you can get it to look close enough.

To answer more directly, you can reduce absorption by applying a wash coat of thinned shellac to wood before applying the stain. You can also use a dye like Transtint and mix it more or less concentrated until you get the color or intensity you like. However, like every one else has said, oak will never look like maple.