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.
The process of staining wood as it has been explained to me:
- Sand a lot
- Apply a generous coat of the stain. Just slop it right on there. Put it on thick as paint.
- Leave it on the surface for several minutes, Minwax likes the phrase “five to fifteen minutes.” To let it soak into the wood.
- Wipe off whatever excess.
- Allow it to dry, ie allow whatever solvent that carried the pigment onto/into the wood to flash off. Minwax provides no guidance on how long this should be, just “Until fully dry.”
- Apply some protective coating be it lacquer, varnish, urethane, shellac, epoxy, shrink wrap, whatever.
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.
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.
