Then wash-coat with 1 part sealer and 3 parts thinner just spray a regular wet coat, don’t load it up, sand lightly with 220 stearated paper, then apply the wipe stain. Woods like cherry, pine and birch can become blotchy and unattractive when stained, unless you use a sealer before staining. The store bought shellac will never come close to giving you a good durable finish like conversion or lacquer. You are able to find a number of different sheens from flat to high gloss. The next thing that you need to do is to brush on a burnt umber or other brownish glazes. From the original questioner I have tried applying after using sanding sealer. Some tree species contain pockets of sap, which cause the wood to absorb stain unevenly. I would like to try to stay with the WB scenario for the safety issues if I can, although the conventional OB seems to be hard to beat. The surface was a desktop that is getting lots of use and wear, and the coating is performing quite nicely two years down the road. Maple is notorious for blotching. Maple is not easy to stain and generally comes out blotchy due to the nature of the wood. Filling the end grain with a stain resist would not prevent the variation in reflection but I wouldn’t call that “blotchy”. If you have already blotches in your wood then you don’t have to fret about it. You will find the results much more gratifying. When you ask anyone about staining a maple floor they will immediately tell you the word “blotchy” or “uneven”. Wipe in wipe off. I think that as long as the end product comes out the way I would like it to, that will be the main thing. You need to know though that you might find it hard to tell which boards will have this effect. How to Remove Duct Tape Residue from Wood, eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'cutthewood_com-large-billboard-2','ezslot_5',181,'0','0']));eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'cutthewood_com-large-billboard-2','ezslot_6',181,'0','1']));eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'cutthewood_com-large-billboard-2','ezslot_7',181,'0','2']));eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'cutthewood_com-large-billboard-2','ezslot_8',181,'0','3']));Search. I would finish sand to 320 grit, then wet with clean distilled water, then allow to dry. To suggest to someone who may not have a lot of colorants on hand and may not have the needed color mixing experience to nail a suitable toner that will come close to matching the Minwax is not always practical. Maple, because of its pore structure, is one of the most difficult woods to finish. The most time efficient and color accurate method we could come up with was to cut the stain 50/50 with VM&P Naptha and spray it on with a cup gun. CutTheWood.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Copyright 2018 by Cut The Wood. This will help in softening the contracts between the deeply colored area and the lighter ones. Comment from contributor A: Any blotch-prevention program starts with evenly sanding to 180 grit on face grain, and to 220 grit on end grain. We orginally sanded and waterpoped then stained with a minwax provincial stain with blotchy results. Would that work better or would waterpoping hurt us? It is an extremely hard wood that blotches due to poor sanding technique. I usually mix up my own shellac, but I found the Zinsser to work fine in this application. Stains tend to fill pores, cracks, and crevices in wood. Fix a blotchy stain If you use a pigmented stain that didn’t take evenly on the wood, what should you do next? This won't completely solve the problem, though. I have tried applying the stain after sanding to 320. Wood sealer Some types of wood, like pine, cherry, birch and maple, are notoriously difficult to stain. The degree cherry blotches depends on the wood or veneer, not on how a stain or finish is applied. By pre-sealing the wood with shellac, you can even out the color absorption. Understand that staining--without blotches--is difficult. By doing this you have already allowed the pores to aborb the water. The most effective way to "stain" maple a dark color is by spraying a fast drying solvent based stain such as Woodsong. Let the stain dry and apply another coating. As with other hardwoods such as cherry, maple can be a bit temperamental to finish, particularly when staining. Don’t let these die hard shellac users tell you that fresh shellac is just as durable as a pre-cat lacquer, not to mention all the steps you have to do to before you even apply it on your surface. Following these steps will help you correct the blotch stain that you have. Sanding sealer if using a nitro lacquer because it sands easily, with post cat lacquer the first coat acts as a sealer. Try a sample piece and sand with 180 grit paper. It soaks up the stain very unevenly. One of the disadvantages that it will have is that it will take a long time before it will dry. Once you are able to wipe off the excess gently, you will realize that the color that you will have will be more uniform. You can begin things by doing the scuff sanding. The stain was a dark cherry and had the usual blotchy appearance that maple gets. We've since learned that maple blotches very easily (I wish I knew that 2 days ago). To minimize the blotchy effect on maple, try wiping the door down with paint thinner and then staining it. Wetting … It takes too much time, and time equals money. Whenever you have wood that has grains that are more open then that is also the place where these blotches often come up. I am in the process of trying some different samples of finish and stain that I have received and will let everybody know how it turned out. It tend to absorb stain unevenly which leads to a blotchy look. I hope I didn’t upset anyone who likes doing things the old way, in my business there is no time for old ways. Using the Minwax will work and then once this project is done perhaps the original questioner will want to investigate proper colorants and mixing schemes. The issue with Minwax as a chosen stain is that many of their colors are combinations of dye and pigment all in the same liquid vehicle. I then spray either a sanding sealer or a first coat of clear post cat lacquer followed by a light sanding. Sometimes it's fine, but in general it's rolling the dice. Apply a wash coat of shellac and then the statement. Staining tight-grained woods like Hard Maple is a problem for finishers. If the surface is very blotchy, you’ll have to remove the stain by stripping, sanding, or both, and start over. The area that is prone to blotching will appear to be darker. There was no blotching or unevenness. On top of that, I can finish it before the first coat of shellac even dries. Maple is not the best wood to stain because it does tend to be blotchy. And if you want to learn how to do it then read on this article and we will show you how. Goof 3: It's splotchy. As craftsmen we are our own worst critics and must live with our choices. Step #1: Sand the floor For both applications the best way to start is by sanding the maple floor flawlessly. A: Maple is not a great wood to stain. Overall, you will get a much more consistent color. And yes stainable wood filler leaves blotchy spots. Wipe off the excess with a rag immediately. Words like pine, cherry, birch, and maple are all known to be very hard to stain. I'm assuming it’s dewaxed but neither the can nor Zinsser's web site says one way or the other. Scrub out the streaks, then reapply the stain liberally. This is warned against at the National Maple Flooring Manufacturers web site. SIDE NOTE: Some types of stain do not require the step of applying a wood conditioner because it is already in the stain. A board that has a nice, attractive grain pattern can end up with dark, splotchy areas after you apply the stain. When applying a stain, be sure to use a ​ pre-stain conditioner to try and even out the "blotchy" patches that tend to appear. The root of the problem is that these woods are unevenly porous, so they don’t soak up stain consistently across the surface of a board. I would like to say that using the Minwax stain is not absolute. A board that has an attractive again can end up with a dark blotchy area after you have applied strain on it. This is exactly what Darin was trying to do. As far as shellac goes, I would never touch the stuff. In closing, yes dumping in the Minwax can be done. This will show the real color as well as the fins that you want to achieve. Minwax stains are not formulated for production use (they dry way too slow and the linseed oil base of their stains vs. the alkyd base of commercial stains makes the Minwax stains an "iffy" stain to use in a catalyzed finish system). This is also a great time to test the effects of different sheens. Blotchiness is caused by irregular pores, most often found in maple, pine, alder, aspen, poplar and birch, that absorb stain unevenly. Ted's Woodworking Plans contains complete instructions from start to finish, leaving absolutely no guesswork. Next, since the original questioner already has a stain that his picky customer has approved, I offered my quick and easy remedy to be used thus once, and to be used with a nitrocellulose lacquer finish schedule. This is the first time I have had to put a color on maple, and I have only done them with clear finish in the past. A board that has an attractive again can end up with a dark blotchy area after you have applied strain on it. For amateurs the best advice is to avoid staining hard Maple, Birch, and Cherry. But for regular lacquer that is going to be sprayed, I think that you can get away with the Minwax/lacquer mix. With all the things you can do to lacquers, why even use shellac? I tried sealing with linseed oil. But there’s a simple way you can prevent most stain blotches. How to Transition Between Two Different Wood Floors, How To Apply Water Based Polyurethane To Wood Floors, How to Resharpen a Japanese Ryoba’s Rip Teeth. But I can also tell you if it is yellow pine sometimes it grabs stain funny. Not impossible, just difficult. That was my first try and that is how I came about to asking the question. This can be due to obvious changes in grain direction or early- and latewood differences in density, but there are also variations in absorbency that are hard to detect and predict. This is just another process you might call a stain conditioning. The best way to reduce blotchiness is to apply a coat of Minwax® Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner after your final sanding, but before you apply your Minwax® stain. I don’t think the old ways look as good as what you can do now with wood. Before I stain anything I sand it with finishing sand paper. Here is what you get: One f the ways to correct blotching is to make sure that you will have no blotching in the first place. This will, in turn, make the project longer to finish. You need to know though that applying multiple coats is it really not the best way for you to achieve a deeper color. However, being darker along the edges and lighter in the middle? If you find that there are excess coating then you can wipe to off gently. Rob Johnstone: Staining maple to a dark hue, which is very dense and quite light in color, with an oil based or gel-style product is hard work … and in my opinion, not a good idea. Stain controllers can only minimize blotches, not eliminate them. General Finishes Gel Stains or Water Based Stains usually will perform very well because they are more topical than traditional liquid oil stains, and contain more colorants. Maple, like several others species such as walnut, American cherry, pine and Douglas fir, do not take stain as evenly as species such as red oak and white oak.Blotchy color can result from other factors as well, such as inconsistent sanding procedures, water-popping, or stain application. Also, if you were sanding and stain matching along a board edge, you would have better odds of success. Blotchy wood stain is caused by wood soaking up stain unevenly due to wood density or by leaving excess stain on the wood for too long. One thing that you need to remember though is to always test the products first in order to avoid a blotchy stain on your wood. I am impressed with level of knowledge that is out there and the willingness to help those that don’t have it. (See photo.) Often this is simply a physical property of the wood species itself (such as maple, black cherry, and pine), whereby it does not evenly accept stain … While the idea may be a little funny sounding - and I already said that this is not a practice that I would want to use except as a last resort - it can be done and it can be done successfully. The two options available are staining maple using a dye (water soluble or solvent soluble, or alcohol-soluble) or using a conventional resin-based wiping stain. Pour the oil into a … For those of you who don’t know, maple is a tricky wood to stain. It tends to go blotchy because of the varying difference in density along each board. Product Recommendations. If the surface that you have is very blotchy, you need to make sure that you will remove the stain first by stripping it. You need to see to it that you will be sending the test board with the same grit that you will be using on the actual project. For water-based stains, use a lacquer thinner. So if the wood isn't smooth and finshed it will grab the stain blotchy… One of the tests that you can do though is to wipe the board with mineral spirits. Lightly sand, then apply a water-based aniline dye, rather than an oil-based stain. I finally found some Zinsser Bulls Eye Shellac.... it worked great. Sure it is great to learn the right way to go about this. Pine, cherry, maple, birch, and alder are the most likely to blotch. Correcting blotches in your wood stain is into really rocket science. Staining close-grained woods like maple and cherry presents a problem for the wood finisher, because they can absorb regular penetrating stains unevenly and appear blotchy. Woods like pine, fir, birch, maple, poplar, and cherry are among those known to be susceptible to blotching. One of the things that you can do though is to opt for a less concentrated sealer. Always remember to do it in one direction only. I have even tried water base stain with conditioner. Test it first on the underside. We chose grade 1 solid maple due to its low-grain uniform look, and DuraSeal Golden Oak stain. The dye will color the maple evenly, allowing the grain to be the most visible. Dust Collection, Safety and Plant Operation, Job Opportunities and Woodworking Services, KnowledgeBase: Finishing: General Wood Finishing. No results are guaranteed and there is always a wild card of unpredictability present when you venture off the tech sheets. The customer handed me a sample of maple with that particular color on it and asked if I could match that color. Always remember to sand lightly. Well, it's not unusual to end up with a blotchy finish after staining maple -- even if you first use a stain controller. I wouldn’t buy my doors. Lave the coat and let it dry. This will also prevent the end grain from absorbing too much stain. Another disadvantage with multiple coats is that it will remove the natural grain of the wood. You can also choose to sand it and even do both and just start over. Basically, in easy to understand terms the wood accepts more stain in certain areas. Now, here is a real maverick approach that I used once -- and I do not condone it despite its success -- you can dump Minwax into some lacquer thinner and add this to your Duravar (M. L. Campbell's catalyzed lacquer) to make a toner. I did include this caveat when I made my suggestions so it's not like I was advising school kids to walk in wet cement. Additionally, CutTheWood.com participates in various other affiliate programs, and we sometimes get a commission through purchases made through our links. Blotchy Stain/Colorant Blotchy stain or colorant is when there is the appearance of an inconsistent color from one area of a finished floor to another. Many woodworkers find it as a good compromise. Out Comes Of Stain. Can we sand and waterpop, next day apply the cut seal coat, then use the jell stain? One of the woods that blotches easily is pine. My experience has grown, but with allot of choices to make. If I showed them my sample door that had a different type of stain on it and the color was close, I’m 99% sure that it would not be a problem, for them or myself. You can do this by starting to make a test board with your chosen sealer concentration. Maple must be sanded uniformly. If you use a random-orbit sander, follow up by hand-sanding with the grain using the same final grit. This might give you a few blotchy appearances but will also help you show the grain better. For my application I used the "Amber" shellac. I can match any kind of shellac with dye and lacquer. Repeat the whole process until you are able to find the desired color depth that you want. It is about impossible to not have a line if you are staining across numerous boards. There are even coats that will dissolve the stain below it even if it is dry already. For me, Minwax is a last resort. I’ll stick popping open a 5 gallon bucket and spraying. For DIY homeowners the best advice is to avoid staining Maple, Birch, and Cherry. ... Hardwoods such as walnut, oak and maple won’t absorb the stain as fast due to the density of the wood whereas softer woods like pine and douglas fir will absorb the stain much quicker. You may need to allow the stain to dry some before wiping. Maple is one of the most difficult woods to achieve a dark, uniform stain color on because it is a dense, closed grain wood and often absorbs stain very unevenly. For a maple hardwood floor we have about a 1000 sq ft to sand and stain. Once you are able to treat your test boards as a fished project then this will help you get a true representation of the final product that you will get. There are many kinds of wood out there that can be very diffluent to stain. This is also the reason why testing is always done in order to achieve a great finish. Once you have the initial stain dry, apply a wash coat of shellac. Words like pine, cherry, birch, and maple are all known to be very hard to stain. On pine, cherry, maple, poplar, and birch, however, spongy areas soak up more liquid—and more color—than dense areas. I’m having a problem getting some hard maple to stain up without blotching. Not impossible, just difficult. This was a last resort for me and I had no other choice. After you have achieved your desired color then apply a final clear finish and see how everything turns out. You need to know that there are things that you can do in order to correct blocks in your wood. Let the coat dry and then gently sand it using a 320 grit sandpaper. I have even dumped Minwax stain into Duravar (a catalyzed lacquer made by M. L. Campbell) but I would never condone that mixing to someone else. The reason some stain accepts more in certain areas is because the wood has a more open grain there. Whenever you have wood that has grains that are more open then that is also the place where these blotches often come up. Maple Stain vs. The Zinsser worked just great. The curls in curly maple, for example, are blotching. Staining tight-grained woods like Hard Maple is a problem for finishers. They also have a clear, which is a bleached shellac. Question The Bartlett Gel stain and the secondary stain went on just fine. I do not make a practice of doing this. If you want a smoother consistent stain (not blotchy) in your finished piece, I would recommend using some type of wood conditioner whether its already in the stain, a pre-stain from the manufacturer or homemade, or water. If you do have a blotching that is not too severe then you can try and glaze it. What you need to do next is to stain the entire test board. After our contractor applied the first stain application though, the floors look very blotchy and non-uniform. Forum Responses I’m using Minwax oil base stain # 218 for the color that the customer has chosen. Maple Dye. Understand that staining–without blotches–is difficult. Working with Linseed Oil Dip the end of a rag or brush into linseed or tung oil. That worked ok, but didn't give the smooth, even results I was looking for. The idea is to be careful in the amounts of Minwax that you dump into your lacquer.