On 17 Mar, 2006, at 12:58 PM, Steven Longley wrote:

> An old problem - I’m having problems getting a
> non-blotchy medium-dark brown stain on pine.
> Now, here is the situation.  The table and bench are
> made from pine, ponderosa pine .
>  I'm deathly afraid of the dreaded "Pine Blotch."
>
> I’ve tried a couple of test boards – unfortunately not
> ponderosa pine, which I would have to travel several
> days to find, but on local Borg white pine, which
> takes about 15 minutes to find.
>
> Test board one:  50/50-BLO/Turps (for natural grain
> enhancement), followed by a spit coat of garnet
> shellac (a bit of color & protection from the blotch),
> then followed by two coats of General Finishes Gel
> Stain Nutmeg Brown (which is the aimed for color).
> Problem… not dark enough.
>
> Test board two:  50/50-BLO/Turps (again for natural
> grain enhancement), followed by General Finishes Gel
> Stain Nutmeg Brown.  A bit darker, but it looks like
> it needs another coat or two and I think that we will
> be experiencing "grain obscurity rather" than
> enhancement.  Also, it looks like it could blotch
> given the right circumstances.
>
Hello all -

Some thoughts about Steve's plight:

1. Test one seems much like the dye/one lb. washcoat/stain approach 
touted in a recent FWW article. (I'm going to try it this weekend on 
some cherry test boards in prep for some kitchen cabinets). I guess the 
idea is that the shellac semi-seals the wood to prevent blotching. It 
seems to have worked, as evidenced by the more dense penetration on the 
second board, where the shellac was omitted. I would wager that you 
could keep building the stain color on the first board. Tape off a few 
sections and try more coats and colors.

2. Chris Minick recommends avoiding blotch (in cherry, however) by 
sealing with super-blond then adding color with coats of button lac.

3. One of the big, big names in woodfinishing has recently changed his 
tune concerning pre-stain conditioners. (I am about 99% sure about the 
name and the facts but I'm on the road at the moment and don't want to 
attribute an opinion to him without checking the source). He used to 
recommend using a conditioner per the label, which demands that the 
stain go on before the conditioner dries, and found the results to be 
iffy and inconsistent. This was my experience a few years ago when I 
used this method on some vertical-grain Douglas fir flooring, which I 
was trying to get to complement a heart pine floor I found under the 
carpet and a century of gunk. Anyway, he now suggest that better 
results can be obtain by letting the conditioner dry. The theory is 
that more of the stuff gets into the more absorbent wood, and by 
letting it dry it has a sealing effect. I think this is the point of 
the shellac washcoat.

4. I'm sure you were planning this, (but just in case) remember you 
have the ultimate test boards of Ponderosa pine; after your tests are 
done, try it on the underside of the bench or table.  If it's a bust 
you can go back to square one, develop another recipe, and still have 
another underside to double-check on.

Good luck and post some pictures.
Regards,
Greg T.

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