As you can see from the attached photos I have some trim finish that needs some cosmetic help. I played around with some trim I removed in a remodel and I could get it pretty nicely cleaned up with denatured alcohol on steel wool, the tougher sections (paint mostly) I got clean with sand paper or paint stripper. Those sections (and those that got more rubbing with the steel wool/detoured alcohol, and those that have been rubbed raw by years of abuse) are pretty much unfinished and therefore much lighter then the less worked sections. I’m looking for a finish I can put on these sections to darken them up a bit. I tried tung oil, it looked nice and blended well with the sections that remained finished but the light sections remained too light. Any thoughts for finish I could try? BTW, the wood is chestnut.
Thanks, M
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big, the only luck I've ever had to blend back in the refinished parts was to go to my stash of stain and dab, lightly brush, whatever-to get the stain on the lighter parts. Anything else used uniformly over the whole thing just darkened the darker while still keeping the difference between the two.
Calvin, that makes sense. I just tried one out of curiosity and it seems like it might just work. One problem however: a section of wood that I used paint stripper on seems impermeable to the stain, like its just sitting "on top" of the wood and not soaking in. Does this need to be sanded down or should I try something like a pre-stain conditioner?
Thanks!
I've not tired a conditioner, might work.
What I do in that case is somehow get the stain on that are, whether with a foam brush, small artist's brush, a pc of rag-dobbing it.......whatever will work to get it on the spot. Sometimes a light sanding will give it enough 'tooth' to hold the stain.
Might take a couple tries to get it to look like you didn't do anything-you know, natural. But once dry, going over with a finish will usually hold the color down.
Is some of that ofd finish Shellac? some of the bumpy stuff almost looks like it. In that case I'd try rubbing with denatured alcohol or strong scotch. That softens old shellac and sometimes will help let your other stuff stick.
These methods are sometimes hit and miss, and time consuming as well. But for just a couple places, better than trying to strip the whole shebang just to cover up blemishes.
try aniline dyes blend and dilute till your hearts content ...