Minwax has ruined enough of my projects. I’m looking for recommendations for wood finishing products, particularly stains and wiping varnishes, that actually work, are readily available on the East coast of the United States, and are not manufactured by Sherwin-Williams.
Wood stain isn't suppose to fully dry. You're supposed to wipe it off after it makes sweet love to the wood.
The process of staining wood as it has been explained to me:
After waiting an entire day, I could still wipe stain off with a clean rag, and applying a wiping varnish took a lot of the stain back off.
Now I might be some damn fool idealist, but a coating that is specifically intended to be applied before/under another coating should survive the application of that second coating. I mean I know society doesn't actually work, but come the fuck on.
What species of wood? Some species of wood do as you're describing, but others are less prone to it. How long did you have the wood and where did you get it from? I've also experienced this on newer-to-me wood from the big box stores, but it seems to improve the longer the wood sits in my wood pile. I suspect it's because the wood isn't dry enough.
Note that I tend to buy stain from whomever is closest and this is something I've observed across brands.
Birch ply wood and yellow pine. Thing is, there aren't many other species of wood I really want to stain, most everything else I work with like cherry or walnut I want for its natural color.
Pine is a harder to stain wood in my experience. Maybe there's a treatment you can use ahead of time? I've had decent luck with shellac on pine and you can dissolve dyes in it.
This is likely the issue. Both of those woods are famously incompatible with normal stains. Gel stains are what most people recommend for those woods. I have also had decent luck with Saman stains with the right preparation and great results with Omnia natural oil.
🙄 Man if there's two species I want to stain, it's those. Like think about how abundant pine is, you can get it at any hardware store right? I live in a pine forest and I know a local sawyer. Yellow pine is abundant and cheap here…and kinda bland looking.
Guess I'll try out some gel stain, I've never used it before. Don't know anything about it.