Staining Maple Issue

Stop sanding at 180 and use a prestain/wood conditioner. Maple is notorious for being difficult to stain and getting even coverage/darkness. You may need to apply two coats of stain.

I stop sanding at 150, and yeah, maple's a bitch. I use a spray/wipe/spray process where I flood the piece, wait 60 seconds, then wipe all the excess away and let dry. The second spray is a light coat for colour.

Hate to say it, but I would strip the rail completely, sand 80 -> 120 -> 150 then re-stain. While I don't usually use a conditioner, that particular piece of wood might call for it..

Gel stains help some, too.

snipped-for-privacy@notreal.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I flood the piece, wait 60 seconds, then wipe all the excess away and let dry. The second spray is a light coat for colour.

Or dyes. Maple is notoriously difficult to stain.

While I don't usually use a conditioner, that particular piece of wood might call for it..

I have a question. I have only used dyes on a couple of projects, on white oak. I needed deep dark.

Anyway, have you used dyes on maple? Is that the solution?

A friend built a maple table for a customer and sanded, stained, varnished and sanded to bare wood 3.5 times. It never looked bad until he varnished.

Ultimately he bought a better sander and that solved half of his issues.

Leon wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Once, anyway. I'm no expert. I'd rather just varnish or oil it.

I to try not to stain. :-)

Same here. Good latex paint covers in one coat.

Sure does! ;~)

Easy cleanup, too. What's not to like?