Bringing Color Back to Bleached Oak

[Tom Grice]

I'm working on refinishing an old oak table top. There were a lot of rings in it, so I used wood bleach to remove those. It worked great for that. But I'm having an issue getting a satisfactory color finish on it. I used General Pecan oil stain, and put a couple coats of Arm R Seal on top of it. I was hoping the Arm R Seal would amber it up some, but the color just looks "white", for lack of a better description. I'm not getting good color saturation into the wood. I will say that prior to bleaching the color on the table top looked good when I was simply wiping it down with mineral spirits. So I'm assuming the bleach is the culprit.

Was not at all happy with the result, so I've stripped the table again. I'd like some advice on how to go about this better for round 2. Wood dye? Gel stain? The penetrating oil stain just doesn't seem to be cutting it.

I'm also considering going back to a finish I've used successfully on most of my shop built projects. Shellac followed by Waterlox. I think that may make the color pop more, I'm just not 100% sure on the durability relative to urethane. I've got a 2 and 5 year old, so this table top will be getting abuse.

[John TenEyck]

Did you neutralize the bleach before applying the stain? If not, that might explain why you didn't get good color absorption. Now that you've stripped it make sure you neutralize that before moving on. OB stains usually work very well on oak. Dyes also work well although sometimes they don't absorb into the pores very well. A typical approach to add depth to a finish is to dye it, seal it, apply a glaze (or gel stain), then topcoat. Whether you use Arm-R-Seal or Waterlox is personal preference. Arm-R-Seal is very light in color, while Waterlox has a much more amber look. Both are very durable and will withstand child abuse for many years.

Nothing wrong with the shellac and Waterlox approach. You can put Transtint dye in the shellac to change it's color, if desired. It also adds greater depth, IME.

John

[Tom Grice]

John - That's a good point on the neutralization. I'd just used the two parts in the box, I don't remember seeing any need for additional neutralization. After you mentioned it I googled it a bit and see a vinegar/water solution is recommended for that so I mixed some up and wiped it down last night. Appreciate the tip!

I tried a test spot of their candlelight color oil based stain, and that gets me quite close to where I think I need to be on the color. Assuming that holds out across the table top, I might have found the stain the negates the bleached color. I'm not sure what color gel stain to use for the top coat though. In the past I'd used antique walnut. I think that may work again, but I want to make sure I'm not getting too dark.