Staining A Pine Door Dark

fast pasquale

Got a customer who's front door i sanded down and stained golden oak. He wants it darker. He's most likely going to go for a dark brownish stain and ive always had problems staining pine a dark color. I've used the wood conditioner and it never seems to help... still turns out blothchy. What is the trick to staining pine dark?.. I was thinking sand it to 150 or 180 grit to try to close off some of the grain so it won't absorb so much stain??... Thanks in advance!

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Chris Frate
Pasquale Floors

Joewho

There is no trick. Pine will blotch. If the owner wants the door to look like oak, he should buy oak. Some pine will blotch more than other pine, it's out of our hands.

Silly people spend a few bucks on a pine door, pay a painter the equivelant of an oak door to make it look like oak.

dougchips

Joe, what are your feelings about the gel stain on pine?

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fast pasquale

gel stain or waterlox (tung oil) mixed with stain seems to be a popular response

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Chris Frate
Pasquale Floors

ProWallGuy

A trick to help stain wood dark (not sure if it will work for pine) is to 'pop the grain'. Wipe the door down with a wet rag which will raise the grain and open the pores to accept more stain.

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Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation

Richard

ain't that the truth

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Rich

Joewho

I've never been a fan of gel stain for anything. But, that's just me, I've seen comments from other guys here that know how to use it, maybe for faux graining, or I thought there was something about it for certain types of doors.

I don't see how gel and stain mix will help any more than just applying 2 or more coats of stain. But, again, I don't know everything.

Brushslingers

Trick to making PINE take dark stain is thus.... wipe it down real good with spirits, dry, then oil, then stain.

Ain't gonna look like oak but, will get fairly dark that way.

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Benn

fast pasquale

when you say "then oil"... what do you mean???

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Chris Frate
Pasquale Floors

Brushslingers

Sorry, witch hazel... or something like that, linseed is a little too much oil, watched my dad use mineral oil once even...

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Benn

painter14619

This is not the customary way to stain a door, but I put on a sanding sealer to close the grain, then lightly sanded the door, then added the stain to desired depth, then sanded, and put a poly as the finish coat and it looked pretty damn good.

troubleseeker

For any chance of not blotching, the pine must be completely sealed. This usually takes at least three coats of sanding sealer, with a light sanding between coats to smooth it out. Those pre stain conditioners are basically just an oil, and the theory is that the soft grain will absorb more oil than the hard, so it will even out the amount of stain accepted. Works fairly well on a piece of uniform wood, but not something with such wide range of grains as pine. The best way to get the uniform color you want, provided the customer wants to pay for it, and you have a sprayer, is to prep as above, then tint a batch of sealer to the desired color and mist on a couple of light coats. Very lightly sand when dry, and protect with marine spar varnish. If no sprayer, take your time with a brush. For top notch protection use true spar varnish manufactured by a marine paint company such as Woolsley, etc, available at a boating center. The so called spar varnish from a non-marine line of products like Minwax pales by comparison in the amount of uv inhibiters and high quality resins. Not a cheap process though.

Joewho

Put you back into it, man. Get a rag and rub the stain into the wood, crossgrain. HARD. After it dries, do it again.

Sealers go contrary to getting the wood to absorb the stain. Raising the grain will open the pores, but then you have raised grain. Has to be sanded. Might get away with raise the grain, stain, seal with sanding sealer full strength, sand and finish.

Get a freakin can of toner.

Tmrrptr

Trouble has got the ticket!

All you gotta do is get the pine client to pay .
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