Looking for a dark stain for Red Oak

[Paul Arnold]

I'm ready to stain a Hall Tree made of Red Oak and am looking for a dark stain without a "redish" tint to it, i.e. Mahogany, English Chestnut etc. I have tested Minwax Dark Walnut which gets close to the desired shade but not quite dark enough. I have put 3 coats of it and its still not there yet. Any suggestions to darken it up or another color? I have tried it with and without conditioner with little difference in shade. Tried the Onyx and Deep Ebony but they weren't very desirable.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Paul

[Todd Burch]

Hummm.. Strange... Minwax stains not getting dark, even after several coats... Humm... Strange.

Maybe the Minwax stains don't get very dark?? Perhaps you have already acheived the best one can get with Minwax.

Did you burnish the wood prior to staining? Did you fill the pores? Did you give it a good shellacing first?

This is kind of "thinking out of the box", but have you tried another brand of stain?

Todd

[Steve Schoene]

Pigmented stains have very distinct limits on their ability to get very dark. After the first coat, the wood is pretty well sealed by the binder, and subsequent coats have only a marginal effect unless you leave them on like paint to obscure the grain.

But, there is an easy solution. Use a powdered analine dye mixed with water to provide the darkness you need. You vary how dark the wood becomes by how concentrated a mix of the dye you make. Occasionally, such a dye won't "take" inside the pores of oak which seem almost waxy. It's an easy fix though. First seal the wood with a coat of shellac, and then apply a coat of pigmented stain. The shellac will limit its effect on the surface between the pores, and the pigment will lodge in the pores. By varying the color of the pigmented stain, either lighter or darker than the base you can achieve very nice effects that exhibit a lot of depth.

[Nancy Laird]

Paul, I know that everyone has his/her own tastes, but I can't for the life of me understand why you would want to cover up some beautiful red oak with a dark stain. Why didn't you build the piece from darker wood to begin with? I'm not trying to be a smart-aleck; I'm just really curious about whether this was a conscious choice to use the oak and try to darken it or if it was built first then the decision was made for a dark piece.

IMHO, there is nothing more gorgeous than red oak with a natural finish--no stain, just a sprayed lacquer finish and that grain pops like crazy.


Nancy (24 days)

[Jim Becker]

Nancy, despite the darker color, the "texture" of the oak (or ash, etc) would remain if dyed/stained dark or if it's ebonized. I'm one of those folks who don't really prefer the look of red oak, but find it interesting ebonized, for example. Yet, I'd not color cherry if you paid me to. (unless it was a lot of payment, of course... ) Kinda one of those personal preference things!

[Nancy Laird]

Kinda one of those personal preference things!

You are absolutely right, Jim. It's a personal preference--like I intensely dislike mahogany!!

Nancy (24 days)

[Sean Kinn]

It may be a cost consideration as well. I'm still a newbie, and for a bed I'm working on I chose Red Oak due to a deal I got on 100bf of it. Depending on the part of the country you're in premium red oak can be had very cheaply. I also like the strong grain look of the oak, but grew up with way too much of the honey amber kitchen cabinet oak color. I'm planning to use TransTint Dark Mission Brown dye. I'll just experiment with the dye ratio until I reach the desired darkness.

[Paul Arnold]

Okay I'll answer in order of response:

Todd - Any suggestions on another brand, I did try some Olympic on another piece but didn't like the results.

Steve - Thanks, I'll have to practice that technique another time. I'm down to the wire on this for Christmas.

Nancy - I could not agree with you more. I didn't go into the why or what nots, but my sister wanted me to make this piece for her daughter as a Christmas gift and wanted it out of Oak and to be very dark. I pleaded with her to keep it natural or go with a lighter stain like the Early American. But she says everything else is dark and wants it to match - I responded then don't make it out of Oak, to no avail of course! So she gets it out of Oak (red beacuse I had plenty on hand), now getting it dark is another story.

Jim - I looked at some ebonies but think that would be too "black" looking and not what she wants.

Who knows, she may get the thing out of Pine painted dark brown. Maybe she won't notice the difference unless she picks it up expecting it to weigh a ton

Thanks,
Paul

[Todd Burch]

Before I make any recommendations that are fruitless, I need more information:

1) What are your finishing capabilities? (rag, brush, foam, spray, etc.)

2) What is your sanding schedule?

3) Got a picture of how dark you want it or what you are trying to match?

4) What are you top coating with?

5) When do you want to be finished / or / how much time do you want to spend finishing?

6) What's your experience level with finishing?

Todd