I want to stain a bunch of pine 1x stock a dark colour for interior trim (windows etc) – like an old dark oak or dark mahogany. I have tried a variety of the minwax products, two coats with a 15min soak in time, plus used a pre-stain conditioner, but the colour doesn’t come out as dark as I would like. Any thoughts on how to get the colours darker? Thanks.
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did you sand the wood first to remove the mill glaze?
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yup, sanded it with 80 through a 180 grit...is there possibility that it is "too" sanded?
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Missed ya. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Money don't talk, It Curses
(the other Bob)
The people at Knots (woodworkers) may be able to help you out. (click on Knots right next to Breaktine near the top of this page.) I think maybe the wood conditioner may be preventing the stain from getting the wood as dark as you want--but if you don't use the conditioner, pine can turn out blotchy. The other thing would be to try dye. Usually the dye goes on first and it soaks into the wood. Then you can stain over that once it's dry.
SWMBO & I stripped 100 years of paint from pine door & window trim and stained it with Minwax 'Provincial 211' to color match the oak book cases I built. Ours came out a bit too dark when I stopped for coffee in the middle of the stain process. How dark are you trying to make yours? I didn't use a sealer/conditioner and wiped the stain on and off with a rag.
Sure..roof cement and mineral spirits....coal tar gives a wonderful walnut color ( oK some psyientist wil argue)....but a dab and a quart will make a walnut stain.
Don't use the fibered unless ya wnn buff it out forever,,,I have even used kero as a thinner in a repro job that nothing else would match..buff, bufff, buffffff...wax on top and yer walnut.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Money don't talk, It Curses
(the other Bob)
180 ought to be fine. I usually sand higher than that, but I'll admit I don't recall the last time someone wanted pine that dark. More in the "fruitwood" territory than Spanish Oak.
The sit time is fairly moot. If you apply the stain, the particles don't embed into the wood any more by letting it sit, unless you let it sit until it dries, but then you just have a mess. Put it on, wipe it off, keep it even. If that's not going where you want it, the dye idea is sound. Dye particles are monumentally smaller than most pigment stains. This does two things. One is you can get more of the color on the board. But even dyes have a limit to how much colorant a piece of wood will absorb. You can darken the tone or change it with additonal coats, again, to a certain point.
Pine being a wood like cherry and birch that is prone to the "blotch" of uneven stain absorption, dyes will also give you a more uniform color across a piece. Transtint dyes http://www.homesteadfinishing.com are alcohol soluable and fairly nice to work with. You can use black to darken a color that you like, such as meduim brown.
Lastly, I don't know you're level of interest or experience in finishing, but if you're into trying new and different things, look into shellac. You can use a very thin cut of shellac to get past the limits of how much dye the wood will take on. You tint the shellac with the dyes and spray it. Now rather than colorant being dependent on the wood for adhesion, each successive coat of color has it's own very very thin film layer binding it together. You are almost bound to do this via spraying, as brushing or rubbing successive coats will only remove and slurry up everything you have accomplished. And I'd use a dewaxed blonde so you don't impact your color or create some other adhesion problem if you wish to topcoat the whole thing with lacquer. I've done this to moulding pieces on antiques and you can get 15 coats of color in an hour pretty easy with low humidity. Or think of it this way, golden oak to mahogany patina in an hour, slight shades at a time.
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