Blotchy Pine, Need Recipe

[Trace Beard]

Does anybody know what I can use to even out the grain on pine. I've tried sealcoat and it sealed the grain so much that the stain hardly penetrated my sample board (I did dilute it per instructions). I tried penetrating oil stain, gel stain, minwax... I think I have yellow pine and white or ponderosa pine to stain.

I have a neighbor who used minwax gel stain on new pine and it turned out pretty good. The only problem is they put the 1st cost on and didn't wipe it off, then evened out the color with a second coat, seems like that could be trouble.

I was thinking of trying Trans Tint but wanted to check here 1st.

Thanks for your help

[Casey Gooding]

How much did you thin the shellac?? If you thin it by 50-75%, that should still allow stain penetration.
You could stain the pine, shellac, then use gel stain as a glaze to even out the color.

[keith ouellette]

leaving gel stain on to thick makes things look muddy.

Did you sand any after you put on the wash coat of shellac?

How dark are you trying to get the wood?

I have trouble getting pine dark after a wask coat also. sounds like you need a toner (dye in shellac) but that needs to be sprayed on. It would be like casey mentioned with the gel stain.

sand the sample board you put the thin shellac on (220grit not to deep), stain, seal, sand, try the gel stain as a toner, then seal.

I'm am not much of a finisher though. I'm still learning that part. Its a major B!

[Scott Holmes]

Gel stain between clear coats is a GLAZE not a toner.

Toners are tinted clear coats. Glazes hide the grain with pigment; toners only add color in clear coat.

[glenn bradley]

I hit Seal Coat 50/50 with DNA and then hit that 50/50 again for use as a sealer. It does lighten the color intensity on stains but doesn't block them. I do this on pine, cherry, maple and such. In general I just try to avoid blotchy woods if possible.

[Trace Beard]

How much did you thin the shellac?? If you thin it by 50-75%, that should still allow stain penetration.
You could stain the pine, shellac, then use gel stain as a glaze to even out the color.

I used 3 parts denatured alcohol to 2 parts sealcoat. I sanded the sample board to 180 grit too much?

Keith, I didn't sand after I applied the sealcoat, should I? I'm trying to get close to some old pine trim in my house. To me it's typical medium dark brown with a hint of red.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Trace

[keith ouellette]

Gel stain between clear coats is a GLAZE not a toner.

Toners are tinted clear coats. Glazes hide the grain with pigment; toners only add color in clear coat.

I used 3 parts denatured alcohol to 2 parts sealcoat. I sanded the sample board to 180 grit too much?

Keith, I didn't sand after I applied the sealcoat, should I? I'm trying to get close to some old pine trim in my house. To me it's typical medium dark brown with a hint of red.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Trace

Thanks Scott. I knew that, having just read about it, but often accidently interchange the words but I described a toner as dye in shellac in my post.

Trace; I'm not that great but I would definitely do a light sanding after the sealer coat. Things will still bond to it if you don't but you will get a little darker more rich color if you do.


The way I understand the problem with pine, the early wood and late wood are very different as to hardness. Thats why when you put a brown stain on un sealed pine you get that heavy contrast of real dark brown and very light brown waves because it soaks it up so un even.

When you put a wash coat/ sealer on you control that. To much sealer and the pine won't absorb much stain (making it hard to get it dark) but it will do it very evenly. By sanding lightly you leave pores and fibers lightly sealed while opening up the surface to except a little more stain.

A glaze or a toner is going to be your best bet.

Again though. I'm not the best finisher and am just learning this stuff.

[Rick Lucrezi]

I work with pine allot, and I use min wax conditioner with great results. I just read an article which I am going to try, that says clear stain wiped on heavy then wiped off and color stain put on before the clear has dried will give a nice color with no blotchiness. The idea being that the wood takes on the clear and evens out the different absorption rates so the color will be taken on more evenly. To get darker just apply more coats of color.

[Jim Becker]

The Minwax conditioner is fine with an oil-based stain, but not a good idea for some other types of coloration. It did make a difference with the floors in our addition, making for a more even end result over a couple thousand square feet of wide yellow pine.