Experiment with Staining Pine

[evilbadger]

This issue has come up a few times so I figured this might be of some use to others.

The test piece is just a piece of clear Pine (white wood as HD and Lowes like to call it) sanded with 220 grit sandpaper.

In the first picture on the left side I used the Minwax wood conditioner before staining, the right side is just raw wood no conditioner.

The second picture shows the raw wood on the left and on the right I dampened the wood with a towel soaked in water. I let the towel sit there for about 15 minutes the same as the conditioner.

The last picture is all 3 techniques from left to right it is conditioner, raw wood, raw wood dampened by wet towel.

What do you think?

[wood-n-things]

Looks to me dampen with a wet towel and you get a consistent stain, how about end grain? Did it lift the grain of the wood quite a bit?



On side note i lost my pics you requested i have asked for him to send them again..sorry bout that.

[evilbadger]

Mike

I have not tried it on the end grain yet. The wet towel method does lift the grain a little bit but not as bad as I was expecting. I'll keep experimenting and keep you posted.

[shadowfx97]

Are you using oil- or water-based stain?

[marshall]

Anytime I stain Pine or any soft wood I use Min-Wax Wood-condioner and has worked perfect everytime - no spoting or showing different shadeing even of the end grain ..........MB

[evilbadger]

The stain was oil based from Porter paints PPG Porter Paints - Olympic Premium Wood Stain

I will try some end grain tests today and see what happens.

Marshall I heard about using the wet towel a long time ago but never believed it would work but judging by what I am seeing the stain seems to soak in deeper than just the raw wood or the conditioned wood.

[Graceman]

I just did a little working with pine. It was a small piece and I sprayed it with shellac and sanded it with 220 grit. Then i applied an oil stain. It worked will with no blotching.
John

[Jim Finn]

another treatment of pine. Yellow pine in this case. Torched it.

[Forester21]

Interesting results. Do you sand the wettened pine after staining to get the grain smooth again? Oh- and to you apply the stain while the wood is wet or wait for it to dry first?

T

[evilbadger]

Theresa

The stain is applied while the wood is still wet. I took a sanding block with some 400 grit and it smoothed down with just a few passes.

I tested the end grain yesterday and the results are similar. Went to take some pics and the camera was dead. I'll post them later. I also tried something else using Mineral Spirits as the "pre-treatment" and it came out about the same as the Minwax conditioner.

[paul44224]

Thank you for posting, and the pics, Tim. I'm working on a pine project now, and will try this out.

Paul

[Cliffo]

heck with the wood, where's the rest of the recipe, if it's got whipped cream, it's gotta be good!
just kiddin

maybe I'm a dinosaur but I've always had good results on board pine by sealing with blo, let dry well, and wiping the Minwax of nearly any color with a rag, wiping with the grain to avoid blotching.
their gel stains have given me more headaches than I can count, though