Gel stain praises

[Jim W. White]

Guys,

I'm building a hutch for the top of my daughters dresser out of soft maple. My challenge was that I wanted to match a very old maple desk that she already had in the room.

I picked up a can of "golden pine" General Finishes Gel stain which appeared to be a good match at Woodcraft. I was very worried about blotching based off an earlier experience with trying to color maple on a peice I used water based analine dye on. The dye worked pretty well but it was nerve racking work trying to chase the wet line and constantly trying to match the coloration across the large expanses. (I don't have a spray set-up, so I did it all by hand)

I can't say enough about the gel stain. There is no blotching at all after taking the panels down to 220 grit. The process for applying the gel stain couldn't be any easier and I felt like I was in total control through the whole process (something I couldn't say about the dye process where I felt like I was racing the clock the whole time.) The stain goes on way more consistently than any other stain I've ever used. (I'm not sure how much of this has to do with the General Finishes product specifically, their stuff rocks in general in my experience :))

The gel stain also goes a very long way, as there is really no waste in the process at all. I used a small squeegee (4" car window scraper/squeegee) on some of the biggest sections to recover excess stain back to the can.

I don't stain peices very often; but I can say with no hesitation, that I will never use anything other than a gel stain again! ...just thought I'd put this out there in case any of you were on the fence about giving gel stains a try.

Jim in Idaho

PS ..I'll post some pictures when I'm done

[Steve Schoene]

You can modify your technique to make using anliline dye easier. The secret is to be really liberal with the dye so there is no wet line as you called it. I use a sponge to apply and work from the bottom up so that any drips or runs can just be wiped off of still wet areas with no visible effect. That way unless you let pools of dye dry on the surface it is the concentration of the solution that effects the color, not how evenly you apply it within very broad limits.

That's not to say that gel stain (or other all pigment, no dye stains) don't have an important role in finishing. I use both.

[Sue Wise]

I like to put a coat or two of finish first then use the gel stain as a glaze. Then a few more coats of finish. It gives some depth to the finish.

[Casey Gooding]

As for the dye, I frequently use a cheap spray bottle to apply it.
Works great.