Poll, To stain or not to stain?

[max]

I have been following the blotchy stain post with amusement. Before I went pro I built furniture at home for many years. There were a few early attempts at coloring wood, mostly bad. Even decent jobs detracted from the craftsmanship (in my opinion) of the final piece. As my skills improved and people no longer were just trying to be kind when I showed them new things I built I found that Watco clear was my finish of choice. Some things like a dining table or kitchen cabinets needed a hard finish but most of my work was dome with oil. When we went pro customers had different ideas and things had to be certain colors and then we just used finishers. We were not good at spraying lacquer or staining. I am now starting up a little shop in my garage and will go back to some sort of clear oil. I choose the wood to match the look I want. So, finally, the question, how many use stain on a regular basis and how many avoid it?? Max

[Swingman]

Depends on the wood for me. With red and white oak, and most other lighter color woods, I almost always use an oil based stain (with the exception of cherry) ... with walnut, pecan, etc, almost never.

And occasionally I will stain certain parts of the primary wood of project and not stain others. An example would be the drawer fronts, on a desk made of white oak that has been lightly stained, will often look nice un-stained so as to provide a subtle contrast after a top coat, like shellac, is applied.

[Steven and Gail Peterson]

Tung oil.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I'm strictly amateur. I use stain on things made from pine, probably 90% of the time. I've only used stain on oak once. Nothing else has been or will be stained.

If a customer want purple, I'll make purple, but for my own use or gifts, I just don't care to shade the natural wood. Just my opinion, but I'm sure others will do different Ed

[mp]

There seem to be some that regard natural and unstained as somehow better or more "purist" than stained but that's not realistic. Sometimes you need to use stains and dyes to bring out the best in wood (as in bird's eye or curly figuring). I'd say that there's no best approach. Colouring wood should be regarded as simply a design decision.

I'd suggest that many woodworkers, while having mastered tools and techniques in building pieces, have spent very little time developing and refining their finishing methods. And yet a good finish is often all it takes to transform a piece from looking garage-built into something much more refined.

[max]

I agree with your assessment. I am not looking down at stained pieces, as it can greatly improve the final look. I just enjoy using different woods for what they are. Work for clients usually means sending it to the finisher as our attempts at learning to spray water base lacquer ended in disaster. Brushing did not look good either. Finishing products are a lot better now and I will probably learn to do it myself since I can no longer afford to pay for it. max

[TWS]

Oil, Oil, and then Oil (mostly Tung or Danish) If the wood needs some color shift (for example I had to shift some maple aprons from yellowish to slightly pink to compliment the color of the top) then aniline dyes. I prefer not covering the wood with color.

Cover coat protection depends on application but I prefer just wax.

TWS

[George]

Working only for myself and for take-or-leave sale now, so I don't bother with stains. Kids at school stained a lot of things, of course, but I'm happy that blot is in the past.

Finish per planned use.

[toller]

Interesting answer. Many people who reject stain are glad to use oil, even though it produces a color change as strong as many stains. I am making a butternut cadenza and have tried 6 light stains on it to see their effects, as well as just BLO, poly, and Danish oil. The BLO comes out darker than 3 of the stains.

[patrick conroy]

Depends on the wood, but as of now, I'm a regular stainer.

[Swingman]

Well said ... but the fact remains that could I afford to do so, I'd outsource ALL finishing.

[Silvan]

I regularly stain poplar, but these days I avoid poplar, so it's sort of moot. :)

I'm contemplating staining walnut walnut colored on my next project though. KD walnut can be a nice rich brown, but it's often not. The lighter colored, almost purplish walnut is much easier to come by locally. Shellac helps walnut it up a bit, but it still isn't quite as rich and dark as I'd like. I might try orange shellac and see how that gets me. If not, I might actually stain walnut walnut colored. Larry Jacques just had a stroke.

I'm back from seeing the wizard, BTW. Sort of.

All of the above is moot until I manage to go buy some walnut anyway. I have a project on the books, but I always find too many other things to spend on before I make the trek to ye olde woode emporiume. It's also getting cold out there. Last year I was out in the shop in spite of the cold, but this year.... I dunno.

[Ba r r y]

I avoid using stain unless I'm staining the wood.

Barry

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

I've found that if one uses enough paper, one generally avoids a stain.

[Leon]

I try to suggest the customer pick a natural colored wood. If the customer is on a tight budget I use Oak and stain to the color of choice. Oak takes a stain very well. I do not stain any other wood.

[Rumpty]

learning to spray water base lacquer ended in disaster.

What finish did you try to apply and have you ever tried Hydrocote Resistane?

[Robert Galloway]

Depends. I don't stain cherry. I stain maple. Sometimes. Most of the time, I think staining is a crime against some pretty nice wood. I've refinished some (taking cover - avoiding bricks) Ethan Allan furniture. When I got though stripping it, the wood wasn't that bad. You sure couldn't tell when the finish was on. I've built replacement parts for damaged pieces. I've almost always had to play with stain to keep the new parts from sticking out like a sore thumb. Never say never or always.

bob g.

max wrote:

[Jack Casuso]

Like Patrick it depends on the wood. Unlike Patrick, as of now, I am an irregular stainer. Use to stain often but now prefer the more natural look of the various woods. Also to be truthful, finishing is my least favorite part of wood working and sometimes my attempts at staining came out looking irregular.

[Ba r r y]

My right arm is currently in a soft cast, so I actually am using quite a bit of extra paper right now!

Next month it'll be the left. Use those anti-vibration gloves!

Barry

[Ba r r y]

That works great until the customer wants a tight, quiet grain.

I always suggest oak or ash whenever I *have* to stain. The stars don't always align, so I have the procedure I posted to the cherry blotching thread.

Barry