"SonomaProducts.com" wrote in message
ups.com...
There are a couple of strategies for clean edges.

1. Coat the edge with shellac first. If it drips to the flat face,
just sand it afgter it's dry, about an hour.

2. Sand or cut the edges after staining.

For somewhat faster finishing, with poly, you can try a wipe on poly.
You should never leave enough on the surface per coat so it drips to
the edge, you can do all sides and rest the piece (lightly) on a bed
of nails as it dries.


Hey that's a really great idea - make a bed of nails for the object to rest
on. I was trying to dry it on a wire rack - but even that provided a bit
too much surface putting dents in the finish where the wires were. Bed of
nails - not bad at all.


On Aug 17, 6:15 pm, "Eigenvector" wrote:
Something that I haven't quite got the gist of doing well yet.

How to stain a flat board **without** getting drips down the sides or
staining the sides of the board so that it turns out with the same finish
as
the top and sides.

Problem I run into is that the sides of the board are typically without
grain, so you end up with a uniform color - unlike the top where the
grain
takes varying degrees of color from the stain.

Second question, correlation to the first, applying a polyeurothane coat
to
the stain. If I want it done right it takes about 3 days to do - flat
part
of board, dry 5 hours, then do sides, dry for 5 hours, flip, bottom, dry
for
5. Sand, and repeat as needed. I seriously want to do the whole board
and
set it on a wire rack to dry, but inevitably I get pools of coating on
the
bottom of the board where the finish slowly accumulates.