Question: Mark, my wife and I
stained some oak plywood and it looks very blotchy after we applied the
second coat of stain. What can we do to fix uneven wood stains? There are
light and dark spots all over the stained wood surface? We’ve watched your
video on Youtube and now know we were staining incorrectly. Thank you for
your time.
Answer: J.C., I’ve been down this same road a couple of times in the past.
You put your heart and soul into building a new piece of furniture and then
go to stain it to find you get an uneven wood stain finish.
In my first case I just lived with
it, but every time I see the piece of furniture I still cringe and just mentally
shake my head. The second and last time I experienced this problem I decided I
was not going to live with it. I asked around and fortunately learned of several
ways to fix uneven wood stain.
Unfortunately I hate to tell you this, but I found the best way to fix blotchy
and uneven wood stained surfaces is to sand the wood down and remove the stain.
To sand the wood down and remove the stain you’ll need to use a medium grain
sandpaper first, followed by a fine grain sandpaper. I highly recommend using an
orbital sander for the large surface areas. Do not use a belt sander to fix
uneven wood staining. You’ll ruin the wood by digging gouges into the wood with
the belt sander.
After you’ve sanded the wood down,
seal the wood surface with a dewaxed shellac. The dewaxed shellac will help to
ensure an even application of wood stain. Then reapply stain to the wood
surface. You should see a much more even application of the stain on this go
around. As an alternative to the dewaxed shellac you can try a wood conditioner
prior to staining the wood. This said, I've never had a lot of success with the
wood conditioners. The wood can still come out a bit blotchy after staining.
If you don’t want to sand the
wood down, and you don’t care on seeing the wood grain through the stain,
you can alternatively apply a gel stain over the stained wood surface. Gel
stain is similar to paint in that it more coats the wood than absorbs into
it. Apply the gel stain more thickly over the lighter areas of the plywood
so that you darken them up compared to the darker areas on the wood. In the
end the gel stain will stain the wood darker and you'll see less of the wood
grain, but it will have a more even appearance. I would suggest practicing
on a piece of test wood prior to going this route.
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