furniture finish repair help

[Rob]

I posted this earlier and did not get many responses. If anyone has ideas, your help would be greatly appreciated.

I bought a piece of furniture and temporarily put masking tape on it.

When I pealed it off, part of the original finish came with it. I tried to apply a closely matching stain but the stain would not go into the wood.

I sanded the area and tried again but the stain will still not go into the wood.

Anyone have any suggestions? The stain I bought is very close in color to the original if I could only get the wood to absorb it.

Thanks for your help!

Rob

[Bay Area Dave]

what kind of wood? (ie. hard dense wood like maple doesn't like to take stain)

what grit are you sanding with? (too high a grit seals the pores)

it's very difficult to buy stain that "actually" stains a piece of wood the color you think it will.

dave

[Rob]

I think it is oak veneer. I did sand with 220 grit.

The stain had virtually no effect on the color of the wood.

I have never heard of higher grit sandpaper sealing the pores.

The furniture I have built myself was sanded with a high grit and took stain with no problem.

Should I try some kind of chemical finish remover?

[George]

In the interest of reality, the _heat_ often produced by sanding with finer grit papers hardens the surface and contracts the pores. Burnishing is what it's called. You can take advantage of this by burnishing end grain to make it almost impervious to stain. You can avoid it by gently hand sanding or sanding with lubrication, beginning with stearated paper, extending to fully wet.

Abusers of belt sanders are well aware of what a burnished area can do to finish absorption. Those pesky light areas where they reversed directions can linger and linger.

Note that wet sanding can also pack the pores of the wood with a light-scattering slurry. Easy to end up with something that looks like a Pergo surface if you're not careful.

I'd wet the veneer with plain old water to make the grain stand up and see if that didn't improve matters. Oak might also have been filled with a paste pore filler whose solvent may be incompatible, and reject the stain's vehicle.