I am finishing a bed. My wife chose the color that requires staining with
two different colors. On one particular piece of wood, the first color went
on fine, but the second color in just a few areas is splochy. Not sure of a
better word. Not exactly sure what is going on here. Any ideas/suggestions?

Also, is your question how do I fix it? or how do I not make this happen
again?

You really need to tell us more. Both the woof and your finishing recipe.



"Stacey" wrote in message
...
I am finishing a bed. My wife chose the color that requires staining with
two different colors. On one particular piece of wood, the first color
went
on fine, but the second color in just a few areas is splochy. Not sure of
a
better word. Not exactly sure what is going on here. Any
ideas/suggestions?

trying to figure out what caused it and how to fix it.

the wood is soft white oak
the finish is Bartley's gel stain. I thought gel stain would be most
forgiving for my first attempt and something real.

The two side rails turned out fine. And so did all but one section of my
footboard. The footboard is where the splotchy ness is.
"C & S" wrote in message
...
Also, is your question how do I fix it? or how do I not make this happen
again?

You really need to tell us more. Both the woof and your finishing recipe.



"Stacey" wrote in message
...
I am finishing a bed. My wife chose the color that requires staining with
two different colors. On one particular piece of wood, the first color
went
on fine, but the second color in just a few areas is splochy. Not sure
of
a
better word. Not exactly sure what is going on here. Any
ideas/suggestions?

"Stacey" wrote in
:

trying to figure out what caused it and how to fix it.

the wood is soft white oak
the finish is Bartley's gel stain. I thought gel stain would be most
forgiving for my first attempt and something real.

The two side rails turned out fine. And so did all but one section of
my footboard. The footboard is where the splotchy ness is.

"Soft white oak"? This is outside my experience.

Gel stains are pretty good for avoiding splotchy, but not invincible.
White oak is pretty good for not splotching, but I don't know of this
"soft" white oak. Of course, there are several dozen species marketed as
white oak.

Since you are using a gel stain, you could seal _under_ the stain, with
shellac, perhaps, _after_ you sand the offending parts back to bare wood.
And if what you have is punky, or spalted oak, that sealer may be the only
way to get a consistent finish color.

Patriarch

Stacey wrote:
The two side rails turned out fine. And so did all but one section of
my footboard. The footboard is where the splotchy ness is.

Possibly not sanded as well as the rest and the rougher areas absorbed
more stain. If that is the case, resanding (well)/staining should fix
it.

BTW, white oak isn't soft.

--
dadiOH
____________________________

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Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 15:14:46 -0400, Stacey wrote:

I am finishing a bed. My wife chose the color that requires staining with
two different colors. On one particular piece of wood, the first color
went on fine, but the second color in just a few areas is splochy. Not
sure of a better word. Not exactly sure what is going on here. Any
ideas/suggestions?

What kind of wood? What kind of finish?

I don;'t know what I was typing. I should have said soft white maple..
Thanks..


"Patriarch" wrote in message
. 97.136...
"Stacey" wrote in
:

trying to figure out what caused it and how to fix it.

the wood is soft white oak
the finish is Bartley's gel stain. I thought gel stain would be most
forgiving for my first attempt and something real.

The two side rails turned out fine. And so did all but one section of
my footboard. The footboard is where the splotchy ness is.

"Soft white oak"? This is outside my experience.

Gel stains are pretty good for avoiding splotchy, but not invincible.
White oak is pretty good for not splotching, but I don't know of this
"soft" white oak. Of course, there are several dozen species marketed as
white oak.

Since you are using a gel stain, you could seal _under_ the stain, with
shellac, perhaps, _after_ you sand the offending parts back to bare wood.
And if what you have is punky, or spalted oak, that sealer may be the only
way to get a consistent finish color.

Patriarch

"Stacey" wrote in
:

I don;'t know what I was typing. I should have said soft white maple..
Thanks..


That 'splains things. Soft maple can and will splotch on occaision. Sand
it back, and give it a diluted coat of Zinnser SealCoat dewaxed shellac
(dilute with denatured alcohol 1:1), then back to your gel stain after 2-3
hours.

Some of us use soft maple a lot. And shellac as the finish coat, too.

Patriarch,
whose keyboard sometimes writes things he didn't intend... ;-)