Staining oak and using spar urethane

[Rich]

I stained some new unfinished oak with Minwax wood stain. I applied one coat and it is dark enough. Then I planned to apply Minwax Indoor/Outdoor Helmsman Spar Urethane on top of that. What I want is a durable but shiny furniture-like surface that is water proof. The problem is that I put the Minwax wood stain on very lightly over 24 hours ago and it is still damp... when I press my hand on it hard it will stain my hand in some areas. Is it OK to apply this Spar Urethane finish now? The can said 8 hours. Its been

24.

[Rich]

I must admit this is the first time I've stained wood. Its a good thing I stained a small piece of test wood only. I haven't started on the main project.

The MinWax Wood Finish can says "Remove excess stain with a clean cloth.". So does that mean the wood is still damp because I was supposed to wipe the stuff off?

Is this right:

1. Apply a coat of stain to the wood
2. Wait 15 minutes and wipe excess stain off with something like an old t-shirt
3. Wait 8 hours, then use the Spar Urethane

I guess I forgot step #2 ???

[toller]

What kind of stain, oil or water? How did you apply it?

Except occasionally for a gel stain, I have never had to wipe and have never had it not dry in a few hours; but maybe you are using a stain I haven't tried, or really splashed it on.

[Rich]

The stain is oil based. I applied it with a foam brush, very lightly.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Wipe it down, paint it tomorrow. I used the Spar varnish on a couple of outdoor rockers. Give them three coats and then one coat about every four years.

[Steven and Gail Peterson]

When it says to wipe it off, you should do so. For one thing, it will help even out the color. Other questions: what is the temperature? what is the humidity? Read what the directions say.

Steve

[Duane Bozarth]

Besides the other responses...

Oak is a very open-porous wood...particularly since you didn't wipe excess off, the pores are holding fairly sizable reservoirs that are very slow to completely dry and probably are being absorbed by the surface as it dries as well...

A sanding sealer before staining will help in two ways--it will fill the pores to minimize the difference in color (unless you really want that porous look) and allow for a much smoother final finish coat as the pores will be level w/ the surface after filling and the final buff sanding...

[Mike G]

Generally, when applying a finish to a like based stain, IE oil over oil, with a brush one runs the risk of the thinner in the finish weakening the binder in the stain and lifting the stain up into the finish. An unpleasant sight.

If you stain isn't dry I'd advise not applying the finish just yet or sealing it off with a one pound cut of de waxed shellac. For the former, when the stain is dry, I'd still be careful not to over work the first coat or two of finish in order to avoid lifting the stain.

If it has been twenty four hours and the stain isn't dry I would suspect either a problem in either you application of the stain or the ambient environment you have it curing in.

In any case, good luck.

[Rich]

I think the problem is I'm doing this in my garage with no air circulation and it is very humid, been raining for the past 3 days.

[Duane Bozarth]

Rich wrote: ...

Think? :)

[firstjois]

Tough going but you do have to consider weather - rain or high humidity - when varnishing. Even if you were to get the thing varnished and dried every time it rained or the humidity got high the varnish is supposed to soften up, too.

Wait for dry weather. Do the varnishing in a dry heated place. I'm not sure how much dust would be kicked up by a fan so maybe that wouldn't be a great idea but you hafta have dry and relatively warm.

And I do try to remember to do a scrap or two with the same steps of satin/varnish/shellac/whatever as the more important finished project. Then I can test if going o to the next step is a good idea.

Josie