Project reset - take 2

[Jon Workman]

I am pretty green when it comes to wood, and greener still when finishing. I have built a barn door using pine, and originally stained it with Minwax Dark Walnut. Some areas of the wood didn't take the stain on the first try (I may have closed the grain sanding with 220) so I sanded it back to bare wood. I then used General Finishes Java Gel, and go figure - my wife doesn't like the color. So rather than spend another 6 hours sanding, is there an easier way to get back to bare wood? I don't want to fix the gel stain, I just want to remove it. I've read paint thinner or mineral spirits may do the trick. There's no top coat. Any suggestions?

[Andy Giddings]

I think Mineral Spirits/Paint Thinner would only work for cleaning up brushes etc. Once the Gel has dried and cured, its going to need stripper to remove

[Scott Brader]

I tried to take off some Java gel stain (my mistake, nothing to do with the stain) and found it to be extremely difficult. I was doing stair treads. Fortunately it was only about a $100 mistake, so it proved easier for me to just buy more tread material and redo it than spend many hours stripping and sanding. I learned my lesson, though, and now completely finish some scrap from the project and get my wife's approval before I go to the trouble and expense of staining the "real" wood! It has saved me more than once. I have gone through six or seven options sometimes to get "exactly" what she wants. I have learned my lesson!

I'm afraid you will probably have to resort to stripping and sanding. The pine tends to be blotchy. I have had good results on blotchy wood with doing a light coat of 1# cut dewaxed shellac before staining, using a conditioner or using gel stains. I have also found the General Finishes water based stains do a good job with limited blotching.

Scott