how can i stain wood ?

Question

hi can anyone tell me how i can stain wood and allso tell me what i need and the step by step of doing it.

Answer 1

It's pretty easy. Start with a clean wood surface that has no finish of any sort. Sand it lightly, then wipe away the dust. Get the color of stain that you want; using a brush or a soft cloth, wipe the stain onto the wood, then wipe it off. Start with just a little - you can always go darker, but you can never go lighter. Always move WITH the grain, not across it. After the first coat dries for about 24 hours, decide if you like the color; if not, add another coat. Once you have the depth of color you want, get a sealer of some kind. I like polyurethane finish that you brush on; it's good protection for the wood. There are many types, including flat, semi-gloss, and gloss finish. Brush on one coat of finish, and let it dry for 24 hours; try to do it on a dry day. After 24 hours, put on a second coat if you want to (you don't have to) after sanding the first coat lightly, and let that one dry thoroughly as well. Your piece should be ready to use.

Answer 2

Step 1 -- Make sure your wood is clean of any marks and lightly sand the wood with a 220 grit sandpaper. Step 2 -- Apply a wood conditioner to the wood thoroughly. This helps make the stain uniformly adhere to the wood as some woods leave botch marks if you don't. Step 3 -- Apply stain with a stain mop pad with the grain of the wood. A rag will work but this is easier. Some stains have finish coat mixed with it, but I don't use them. I use oil-based stain. Wipe off the excess stain after about 5 minutes. Step 4 -- After the stain has dried overnight, apply a coat of polyurethane sealer with the grain of the wood. It comes in either water or oil-based mixture. The water based dries quickly but is not as hard as the oil based. Plus, the oil-based was a strong odor and you need adequate ventilation. Step 5 -- After sealer has dried thoroughly, lightly sand with 180 grit sandpaper with the grain. The sealer makes the wood grain stand up is the reason it needs sanding. Step 6 -- Apply a 2nd coat of the sealer (polyurethane) and a 3rd if you want. Done!

Answer 3

First, you should know what kind of wood you have. Is it open grain or close grain. Open will take alot more color.ie, pine. Use a semi transparent stain, to show the grain and use a polyurethane as a finish coat.

Now, sand over your wood lightly, sanding the same direction as the grain. NOT ACROSS THE GRAIN. Clean off the saw dust with a tac cloth(Lowes). Must get all the dust off. Apply the stain with a brush or a cloth, again going the same direction as the grain. Brush gives you more color, at one time. A cloth will give you more time to determine what color you want.If u want less color wipe more off. Applying more coats, gives you a darker color.With a semi transparent stain, you DO NOT have to sand between coats.

Polyurethane comes in either an oil or latex. Latex cleans up with soap and water and dries faster. You need to put at least two coats, sanding lightly in between coats. This also means the poly must dry between coats. This also comes in a matte(flat), semi-gloss or gloss. According to your preference.

Answer 4

You need stain. Do you want it to look like another kind of wood, cedar,mahogany, black walnut, cherrywood? What people do not understand is that stain is a color that you can put on any wood - you do not need to have walnut wood for walnut stain.
Walnut wood is a certain color of brown,cherrywood is a different color of wood naturally(redish) and if you like that color and you got pine, put the cherrywood stain on the pine and it gets a reddish tone - similar to cherrywood. Same goes for every other wood color stain.
Okay? You understand that you are on your way.
My home has alot of pine, fir, oak, and mahogany wood.....but I like the look of naturally occuring "black walnut"...which is a pricy wood........ so I got black walnut semi transparent oil stain.
And I stained all the woods I had(which were not coated with anything) and there were no marks on them (pencil marks or anything else is sanded off with 150 sandpaper) Stain is stirred up and then brushed on, wait a bit (5 min-10 min to soak into the wood) and then rub off with a cotton rag. What remains is black in the soft portion of the wood and not as much soaking in the wood grain(which is the tree rings and is harder).
You need to try this out on trial pieces to see how long you need to let it dry before you rub off. The longer it dries, more of it is dried on the wood.

Why wipe it off? To hide the brush marks.
If the color is not rich enough for you after the first application and wipe, let it dry overnight and restain and wipe again. You still end up with that natural wood look with the wood grain.
If you don't want the wood grain,,,,simple, it is called paint.

After the woodstaining, again leave overnight. Use a oil varnish finish. Not waterbased. Not on an oil wood stain.
You can get varnish or urethane in a satin finish or a high gloss.
Satin, flat, gloss, semi gloss is a sheen of the finish. Look at some samples at the paint store.

I am not so up on waterbased stains as they are harder to control the finish quality. Brush marks are harder to hide.

I been doing this for years on furniture, doors, and the like.

Answer 5

Woodstain can be picked up at usually any hardware store like Home Depot. (that's where I got mine.) First make sure the wood is clean and you've filled any cracks or flaws with wood putty, as staining will highlight these along with the grain. You should sand it beforehand too. Only get the TIP of your brush wet and paint WITH the grain, not across it. Make sure you don't leave any blotches, because they will dry like that. Wait about 30-45 min to dry and look at the finished product, if you like it sand it lightly and apply a coat of clear gloss, if you want it darker apply a second coat the same way.

Answer 6

Since I have been refinishing furniture for about 50 years, I think I can explain it.

If the wood that you have is (1) unfinished, or (2) completely stripped, then you sand the wood completely smooth with a 1/2 sheet sander or a 1/4 sheet sander (you can use sandpaper wrapped around a piece of 2x4 lumber). Sand with the grain. I would not advise using an orbital sander because it puts squiggles in the wood. After you have it as smooth as a baby's bottom every where on the piece, you are ready to start.

Get tack rags, rags that are designed to pick up sand dust from the surface of the piece - in other words, get all the dust off.

Your main problem lies here: What kind of stain do I want to use. There are more stain types available than anyone thought of and some of the types are wiping stains penetrating stains. I like penetrating stains that do not use universal colorants in them. Most of the stains on the market use universal colorants. Universal colorants are what is used in both oil based paints and latex based paints for tinting. In wood finishing and refinishing, universal colorants are usually somewhat "picked up" by the type of surface that you put on and most are designed not to go too far into the wood. With wiping stains and penetrating oil stains, you can either use a brush, a spray gun, or a rag to put it on. I normally use a rag with stain in one hand and a rag to absorb the overage that I put on the wood with the other - just wipe it on and rub it off until you get the exact depth of color that you want.

Most people today are using MinWax stains, which I do not like because they contain a sealer in them with stops the ability to apply a second coat to make the color darker and they are tinted with universal colorant. But that is what you are going to find all over the place, you will have to go to special stores to find what I use.

Anyway, pick your color noting that the actual color of the wood might not be quite the same as on the color chip in the literature because of the natural coloring in the wood or because of the grain in the wood - but it will be close enough for government work.

Once you have the color you want, you can follow that up first with a sealer and I usually use the old standby of a clear shellac which can be brushed on and dries in about 20 minutes. If you want something that smells a little worse, you can use a laquer sanding sealer which will be completely dry in the same amount of time.

After that is on, rub it lightly with eitehr a very find sandpaper or even a 0000 steel wool just to scratch the surface of the sealer. Tack rag the piece after that to pick up all the dust that is one it.

You can't over do tackragging, dust removal is very important to the finish coat.

99% will now use a clear varnish, probably something like MinWax. That is,of course, OK, but you have to consider that it takes about 8 hours to get to touch dry and thus every bug and particle of dust that hits it will stick to it. Do not over apply varnish, use it sparingly, because if it runs, you got a major problem.

I use laquer and spray it with a compressor and spray gun. You can get a brushing laquer which will have a slower dry time than sprayed laquer, but it will be dry within the hour or so. You can, of course, completely finish it with shellac, it is a very good finish and was used on all furniture until laquer came intot he picture. You can use water based polyurethane varnish which will have a faster dry time than standard varnish. Use what you know about and don't try new stuff except on projects you can experiment on.

After the finish has dried, I usually do a light rub with a 0000 steel wool to get the bugs and dust off.

Answer 7

I bought army ammo boxes to use as pot plant holders on the balcony. I did not want to spend a lot so after sanding a bit I rubbed in a condy's cystal solution about a cap full (small chemist bottle as it is used for sterilising and washing wounds)to 250mls of water it is an intense pink/red and stains skin so use gloves stains the wood brown and it does fade on drying so you can re coat if you want darker. When it dried after a few days (this is not an exact science) I rubbed in boiled linseed oil(from paint shop) this takes a month to dry--- just feel it.you can rub it in monthly after this depending on the look and your patience can be fun a bit of work but not over the top!

Answer 8

get a can of wood stain,sand down the wood to be stained,wipe off well,use a soft rag to apply the stain,making sure you rub in the direction of the wood grain

Answer 9

Both. Stain the piece completely, and let it dry completely - you might have areas that need to NOT be stained due to laying the pieces out to dry - this is OK, as long as you feather the stain out near the area. Once assembled, you can feather back into the area, and find any holidays (areas not completely stained) and fix them. All of the joint areas will look great, no dribbles, ect.

Answer 10

if you ever need to spot treat a stained wood item soak the spot with a wet tea bag and the water stains disappear