Staining maple with Java stain. Need help

[David Scigliano]

I am trying to stain a maple dresser to match my cabinets. The color is a Java color. I could not find this stain so I went down to Vista Paints and they were able to match the stain. I now have a gallon of Solvent based Graintone plus wiping stain from Valspar. I tried to apply this stain onto soft maple with no success. It comes out light almost faded. I do not have a spray gun and will be wiping on the stain.. The dresser is made from soft maple, maple veneer and maple ply. How can I prepare the wood so it can accept the stain that I bought? Thank you very much

[Brian Hale]

At what grit did you finish sanding it? If you want a stain to take on a darker tone, try stopping at a coarser grit. The differance between 120 and 150 can be quite noticable. The coarser grit will leave larger "grooves" for the stain to sit in.

Brian

[Steve Schoene]

An oil based stain isn't going to get a really dark color in maple. For dark, you need a dye. Dye will penetrate, and doesn't depend on having a coarse surface to grab. An aniline dye, mixed with water, is what you need to get to the proper level of darkness. You can adjust the darkness by varying the concentration of the dye when you mix it. Now if the finish you are trying to match is a commercial finish, it may be difficult to get a really close match because they may have sprayed a toned finish that includes pigment and/or dye in some of the topcoat layers. In my opinion, there isn't a good way to match that without spraying. I would make the finish on the piece you made coordinate in tone, but be enough lighter, or darker, that it doesn't look like you tried to make an exact match.

[David Scigliano]

Thank you very much for the information, I do not have a spray gun and have never sprayed stain before. I do have a Porter Cable pancake compressor. Could I buy a spray gun and use it with this compressor?

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

Barkley makes a "JAVA wipe on Gel stain that should work for you. I know it's available from Woodcraft.

Bruce