Thread: Stain and varnish on tassie oak coming out very blotchy

Originally Posted by toni_k

I'd appreciate if anyone has any ideas as to what went so bad here and how to prevent it in the future.

Toni,
my experience with those stain/varnish combination products has not been good. In my experience the darker colours like walnut always turn out blotchy.

How to prevent it in future? Just use a clear coat. No need to try and make Tassie oak look like walnut.

Pine is a timber that sucks up stain very well and goes blotchy because of the differences within the wood while its sucking in the stain. A thin barrier of size or sealer helps even that out sometimes. And it depends on what stain your using as well.

Vic ash is different in that it doesn't take stain so well . Timbers are described sometimes as to how they take a stain and they are all different. It doesn't mean you cant stain it but a different approach is needed. Some watery brown in a can from Bunnings isnt the go if you want to make a big change with Vic ash . I would be testing water stains out on some scrap and see how that goes. It means you have to wet sand / raise the grain with water and then re sand it once or twice to prep for the water stain first. Water stain will bite in and hold well and you can then either spirit stain over that when its dry if it needs more colour adjusting then seal in with oil finish. Or just oil finish it after the water stain .

Thanks auscab! I have some leftovers of that timber so I'll give the water stain a try.

Toni