Thread: Does pine stain take a dark finish well?

Originally Posted by Daniel99

Hi all )

Being the complete amateur I am, I'm building my first ever project, which is my workbench. It has a 3 inch thick benchtop and is pine. I was just wondering... I've only ever seen pine in light colours, but I'd love a darker benchtop. Does pine take a dark stain/finish well? I've never stained/finished timber before, so I'm completely clueless. Thanks for all the brilliant advice on this forum!

Daniel

Yes it does Daniel, see my post under "big stuff" . I made a bedside table and stained it with a Watyl American Redwood stain. The results can be a little unpredictable if the timber has a lot of knots. I find that applying thickly with a brush and wiping off the excess with an old dish cloth a few seconds later gives the best, most even results. As always try on a bit of scrap before you start on the piece that you are working on. A word of warning: stain is $60 a litre and the clear coat is $30 a litre. So a coat of stain and three coats of clear can be a significant proportion of the cost of your work bench top.

Pine is great for staining, although is sometimes a little varied in it's takeup of the stain colour. It can have soft-spots and hard-spots, or knots as already mentioned, and some of these softer areas will take up more stain, and sometimes you hit a hard area that won't take much stain at all. This is particularly an issue with spirit stains, which can completely soak in to soft wood before you blink. The end-grain will also wick-up this sort of stain, and can be an issue. Gel stains soak in slower, so you will have a little more control because you can wipe off when you are ready.

It all depends on the quality of your pine. If you've made up your own top from logs of slash pine (fast growing soft pine), then you might see a lot of this uneven takeup of the stain. If you have a good quality smooth pine, it's much less of an issue, and the better quality pine, like prelaminated benchtops, should take stain very nicely.

Make sure you sand all the faces consistently smooth, particularly the end-grain before applying the stain. Any rough edges will hold the stain and show up darker.

One trick if you are concerned about uneven staining is to do a first coat of varnish, then sand it back to the wood. The varnish will penetrate deeper into the softer areas of the wood and end-grain and help to prevent these areas from wicking in the stain. This technique does limit the amount of darkening you can get from the stain though, so if you really want a dark bench, you might not want to do this.

One last point is that if the stain takeup is uneven, and you are going dark anyway, a 2nd coat of stain will darken it further and hide any issues that may have come up in the first stain coat.

After staining, you do have to varnish it, otherwise the stain will leach out onto your projects and your hands.

I done pine, some of my earlier, some looked a little blotchy - uneven, and came out pretty goog. I started using a wood sealer, wiped one, let sit for awhile, then stained - within a 2 hrs period - max Might have to do a light sanding prior to the stain. Give it a try on some scrap first.

glenn

Stained heaps of Pine projects over the years for clients. Best type of Wood stain to use is a Traditional Oil-Based Stain such as Wattyl Colorwood, which is available in dark colors such as, " Walnut, Jarrah; English Mahogany, " etc., to name a few.
The thinner dye type stains such as the Cabots Interior Stains have a tendancy to come up patchy, and require a second coat,- sometimes even a third coat to even-out the stain colour. Always pays to read the information on the Sales Brochure / Colour Card, and / or ask the Salesperson,- sounds simple enough,- but it is amazing the number of people who never ask questions, or stop to read Sales Brochures / Colour Cards !!!
Personally know of a Professional House painter mate who was in too big a hurry to read the instructions on a can of paint one day, then wondered why it, " curdled,' when he thinned it with turps. Yep,- it was Acrylic House Paint,- water thinned,- not turps!!!! He got reminded about THAT for a long time afterwards !!!

'ave a good day,
Roger

Use a pine sealer such as this one Feast Watson - Sealers & Fillers - Proofseal .

Follow the link and read the specs. Made for the job....

cheers
Arron

I use one ounce of hide glue in a liter of hot water. Stir it up until it is evenly mixed and wipe it on the pine. Wait 24 hrs, light dand with 180-220g.
Google hide glue sizing and learn all about it.

Agree with Arron above - works like a charm - my preference is spirit stain but even though you can use metho for clean up buy the correct solvent if you wish to dilute any colour - that said also pay particular attention to any end grain as end grain will "suck" it up so quickly and dark that it will almost appear black and with no character at all. To avoid this ensure that any end grain fibres on curves or actual ends are properly sanded [almost glass like] to at least one grade higher than the other surfaces - this will ensure that the ends will have the same colour and the rest and enable you to see any grain changes etc.

If I could also make an additional suggestion re containers used for any wiping or brush work.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f9/cla...3/#post1277795

Hope it helps.