A friend of mine was trimming a doorway in her house with pine. After getting the casings up, she coated the wood with Minwax Conditioner (sealer?) then with Minwax stain. The result (she tells me – I haven’t seen it yet) is blotchy stain.
Anyone have some suggestions how she can fix the problem?
Art
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Pine can be tricky to stain because, as you've noticed, of it's differing rates of absorption. The usual way of evening it out is to thoroughly sand it, working up to at least 120 or even 220 grit. This closes up the pores that have higher rates of absorption.
I don't know if it's too late now, but there's no harm in trying.
BTW... the guys over in Knots might have a bit more info on this.
The simplest fix is probably to get some gel "stain" and touch it up with that. The gel isn't really a stain in the conventional sense, but just sits on the surface, so you can apply it over hard-to-stain spots and even over existing finish.
Takes a little putzing around to get it "right", but it can do a pretty good job, especially if you just need to touch up some spots.