I've got about 500 ft of poplar window and door that I want to stain to come close to "minwax early american". There is very little green wood but the poplar still blotches. Is is possible to mix a conditioner with stain and oil to make a one step finish? Would prefer not to go over these things 2 or 3 times (but I might have to). How is analine dye on poplar?
Any ideas?
Try glue-size. Let it dry first, sand it, then use an alcohol-based analine dye. (A water-based will dissolve the sizing.)
Granted, it will necessitate going over the wood again, but it usually eliminates any blotching. And the alcohol-based dye takes surprisingly well on the sizing.
Any ideas?
No you can't mix it together. It would defeat the purpose. The pre-stain esentially soaks into the wood to keep the stain from being able to soak in so easily, therefore laying out more consistently. So the pre-stain needs to be laid down first.
I use the Minwax pre-stain conditioner quite a bit (on Pine mostly). It is esentially colorless so you can be pretty fast (ie messy). I slosh it on like water, wipe it off immediately and follow it with oil stain in just a few minutes. I think you could move along pretty quick if there isn't too much detail to worry about.
I use the minwhacks conditioner on poplar (as well as all Jummywoods) and find it works well to get rid of the blotches. Goop it on with a brush or your favorite applicator, let it dry 20 minutes, and apply whatever stain you like. I tend to use darker stains to cover the poplar colors but if you have selected your boards carefully, lighter stains should work just fine. You might experiment with adding a dye to the conditioner (on some scrap of course) and let us know how it turns out. mahalo, jo4hn
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