Zar Stain ???

[Tim Compton]

I am finishing a table base for my wife. I want to stain it black, I wanted to use General finishes, but they don't have an oil base black. Zar finishes has the color that I want, has anybody used Zar oil based stain. Is it a Minwax quality stain or is it a good product.

[John TenEyck]

Sorry, I have no hands on experience with Zar's product, but my general experience with most black oil based stains is they don't give you black. The best approach I've found for getting a deep, uniform black is to use India Ink. SW's Ebony BAC Wiping Stain and GF's Espresso Gel Stain works very well, too, but neither is a true black. Another approach I've used is black lacquer. It's not stain, but the piece ends up a nice uniform black. GF's black Milk Paint works pretty much the same way.

India ink is easy to use, just brush it on with a foam brush, let it dry, then topcoat as normal. India ink is not too expensive when you buy it in larger quantities:

https://www.amazon.com/Speedball-Sup...ords=india+ink

For comparison, here is India ink followed by WB topcoat:



This is SW's BAC Wiping Stain + shellac+ WB topcoat:




Here's is GF's Milk Paint:



This one is black rattle can lacquer:




John