Hi all,
I'm brand new here and glad to be part of the community!
I'm working on my most ambitious project yet (a pine bookcase; I'm pretty new to woodworking).
I'm making up some swatches to work out how I'm going to finish it. (The plan is dye, then stain, then Danish oil. I used dye/stain/poly to make some hemlock curtain rods, and I was very happy with the result; I figure Danish will be easier to apply to a more complicated shape, and I'm not super worried about having tough surface protection. I know the pine will dent anyway.) So far, I've applied a water-based conditioner and water-based dye.
When I made up the pine blocks, I drilled a couple of small holes in each side and filled them with filler (Elmer's ProBond Stainable) so I could see what that would look like. In most cases, it produced a small patch a little darker and a little different in tone, which I'm okay with for this project (though I'd probably correct it if I knew how). You can see this in the top left of the image. My real concern is with the one at bottom right. Why has the wood around the patch not taken up the dye?
wood sample 1.JPG
I'd appreciate any insight you might offer.
~Graeme