Oak ply staining poorly!

[Royce Meritt]

Hey everyone! I am in the final stages of finishing up some fairly elaborate woodwork around a friends whirlpool tub. It started with a face frame with rail & stile, flat panel doors on the front of the tub surround to allow access to the plumbing. That was followed by a "soffit" above the tub with fluted columns going from the tub deck to the "soffit" at the ceiling.

Here's the problem...the back of the "soffit" is a simple 1/4 oak ply rail and stile panel. He is having a problem getting the oak ply to stain nicely. It appears that in some of the more "open grain" areas of the plywood it is not staining properly. Is the problem caused by the veneer layer being SOOOO thin that there is glue "bleed-through" and therefore the oak won't take stain? Anyone else have this problem? Thanks/

[Steve Clardy]

Yes. I find this more and more, especially with Red Oak ply. 75% of my cabinets and builtins are Oak, so I have to sift through the sheets finding the best red color for the outsides. I use the ones that show glue and the ones with the most white wood on the insides, bottoms, etc.
Steve

[Ken Salisbury]

Attempting to get an even color between plywood and solid wood using the same stain is a common problem. What normally works for me is to use Minwax Wood Conditioner on the plywood prior to staining. Try that on a piece of plywood scrap and compare to the stain applied on the solid wood.

[Bill Roland]

Ken's correct. I used the Min-Wax on some pine baseboards before staining and the looked great. I did a test before hand and selected the stain that made it look like my Oak flooring.