Blotchy danish oil on previously waxed pine veneer

[bpbpbp]

Hi, I think my upcycled ply kitchen doors, with pine veneer, were previously waxed or something as I sanded at 100grit carefully so as not to go through the veneer, and then applied a thin coat of Danish oil and wiped off excess x2 but there are many places that will not absorb the oil.

I'm concerned to sand more as the veneer is so thin. I'm happy to paint over with some kind of colour-tinted transparent finish, or very lightl stain them white if possible whilst keeping the grain visible. 

Any ideas to prevent the blotching or for suitable finishes, I'd be most grateful, thank you!

[wtnhighlander]

Welcome @bpbpbp!  Some pictures would help, but my guess is that you are seeing areas where the veneer glue has penetrated up into the top layer. That fills the space between wood fibers and keeps the pigment out. If that is the case, something with pigment that stays on the surface, like gel stain, tinted clear coat, or outright paint, is about your only recourse.

[drzaius]

I know the horse is out of the barn, but 100 grit is pretty aggressive to be sanding any kind of veneer with. Washing with a solvent to remove the wax & then very careful scraping or sanding to clean up the surface is a better way moving forward.

Sadly, what @wtnhighlandersaid is probably what you're facing now. But I think stain is only going to make things worse. It's just going to make it look like a bad attempt to put lipstick on a pig. Paint is about the best option at this point.

[gee-dub]

My knee-jerk reaction is that the glue is telegraphing through.  This is something one always has to take into account when veneering.  Refinishing veneer is fraught with greater peril as the strippers and / or abrasives can take the exposed surface even closer to the adhesive.  You will see a lot of mass produced or "cheap" veneered products carry a very heavy pigmented stain job.  Take a look at things like "cherry finish" on cabinets in your local BORG.  These finishes look more like paint than stain to me and solve the telegraphing problem through sheer density of coverage.

Here's an example of how to hide almost anything and call it "cherry".

 

 

[bpbpbp]

8 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

Welcome @bpbpbp!  Some pictures would help, but my guess is that you are seeing areas where the veneer glue has penetrated up into the top layer. That fills the space between wood fibers and keeps the pigment out. If that is the case, something with pigment that stays on the surface, like gel stain, tinted clear coat, or outright paint, is about your only recourse.

That makes sense, thanks very much!

[bpbpbp]

I finally got a picture. As you can see, some areas look just as it did before oiling so probably the glue in these places. In others, the oil has taken, resulting in overall blotch city!!!

Is there anything at all I can put over top to get a uniform natural or gloss finish, before resorting to paint?

If paint is the best way forward, I might try a 2 parts water 1 part paint white wash and see if that still gives me some woodgrain effect.
 

[wtnhighlander]

That doesn't actually look too bad. Pine is known to blotch a bit, even at its best. I would leave it, unless the pictures don't reflect reality. If want to keep it as close to the natural pine color as possible, you may be able to add a coat of "natural" stain, once the oil is fully cured. The natural stain has almost no color, but does seem to help even the surface tone. Pay close attentions to the directions on the product container, to be sure it is compatible with the previous finish.