This will show the real color as well as the fins that you want to achieve. We then tried a different brand (MinWax) to see if it was the stain but the MinWax turned out blotchy too so it's obviously not the stain. To fix it, you are going to need to sand it again until you get down to bare wood. However, I have had pieces of furniture that would stain perfectly while one little spot just wouldn’t take. Learn how to apply blotch-free stain that will cover your project evenly. You need to know that there are things that you can do in order to correct blocks in your wood. So the answer to this question depends on the issue you are having. Let the coat dry and then gently sand it using a 320 grit sandpaper. If you don’t enjoy stripping stain off wood, or you just don’t have the materials, you can sand the bad stain job completely off. Pro tip: Some types of stain perform better than others on blotch-prone wood. So if the wood isn't smooth and finshed it will grab the stain blotchy. Then grab a dry rag to clean up access liquids, but just be careful you might end up removing too much! If you remove too much, restain that area and start over. Priming would be required because the stain would bleed through the paint very easily. Choosing the Best Wood Type for Dark Stain. Lave the coat and let it dry. Pour the mineral spirits on the surface that you scraped, then use the steel wool to clean up the remaining stripper residue. In one of my YouTube videos, I had refinished a dining table, but I made a huge mistake that had taken hours to fix. To prevent this from showing in your final result, you can sand blotchy part of the surface with aggressive grit sandpaper. This can give the deck an unsightly spotty or blotchy appearance. This is just one small example where I needed to fix a bad stain job on wood, trust me there have been plenty of others. It looked like he wasn't using a lot of stain but the deck dried with an uneven finish. Then switch to a 100 percent pigmented stain, such as Varathane (most stains are a mix of dye and The oil-based stain you used is the latter type, either entirely or mostly coloured with pigment 1 suspended in an oily binder. If you need to hide those blotches in your wood stain here is a solution for your to consider. The next thing that you need to do is to brush on a burnt umber or other brownish glazes. It will block the stain from absorbing and is hard to see before the stain. Stained a second time, shadows showed really bad. The thing is there isn’t one type of bad stain job, issues of all kinds can arise. After completing the staining process, you can apply the stain on the wood as always. My goal is to figure out a solution for your bad stain job and get your project looking as good as possible. I'm assuming in this answer you used a pigment-based stain (most are). If the surface that you have is very blotchy, you need to make sure that you will remove the stain first by stripping it. Apply a wash coat of shellac and then the statement. How to Match Wood Stain. Also, sanding with the grain improves the staining results so I highly recommend doing so. First apply the mineral spirits. This will, in turn, make the project longer to finish. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This website is independently owned and operated. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive my latest updates on Youtube videos and more! Blotches are best cleaned with a sponge or cloth. Sometimes you stain wood and it soaks up all of your stain quickly and other times your stain just sits on top. Only dab your rag with chemicals such as mineral spirits for this process, too much will remove a lot more than you want. What I would do is just apply stain to that selected area and blend it into the rest of the piece until it matched. My favorite top coat finish would be to spray 3-4 layers of lacquer over the paint, or I would use Triple Thick Polyurethane. I have had multiple staining failures flipping furniture and other DIY projects where I couldn’t figure out a solution. Another disadvantage with multiple coats is that it will remove the natural grain of the wood. What you can do is sand down the areas not staining well by hand. If you keep it up, you’ll eventually reach a point where the stain resembles the natural color of the wood before you begin sanding. Decide which amount of wood stain sealer gives you the desired look. If you need a darker glaze to cover up the blotchy areas, use just the tip of a dry, natural-bristle brush to distribute the stain (instead of wiping it off) until it's an even color. Q: We are having our oak floors refinished in a darker stain to add contrast to the other woods in the house. One thing that you need to remember though is to always test the products first in order to avoid a blotchy stain on your wood. Sometimes your first coat of stain isn’t enough, you might see some uneven coloring and some places may not even take in the stain well. And yes stainable wood filler leaves blotchy spots. If I have a scratch in the surface or the stain is blotchy in certain areas I will sand with grit that would be the same or higher than what I have previously used. Apply the wood conditioner as you would the stain, in even strokes along the path of the wood grain. And if you want to learn how to do it then read on this article and we will show you how. Painting furniture is super popular and can be an easy cover over the stain. Repeat the whole process until you are able to find the desired color depth that you want. Area until it matches into your project stain I would do is just stain... 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