Natural Wood Stain

[ralph blanco]

I'm on a project right now and I'm at the wood staining stage, but i really hate the smell of wood stain. Are any alternative? Something Natural? and if there's any would you advice me to use it?

[Scott T Smith]

Hi Ralph, welcome to SMC!

You might want to explore using a dye instead of a stain. Dye's are typically available in either alcohol or water based, and there is no smell to the ones that I've used other than the alcohol.

[Lee Schierer]

You can make a dark stain from crushed black walnut husks and water. I have no idea what it smells like, but it will stain your wood to a walnut like color. It will also stain your hands if you don't wear gloves.

There was an article in "WOOD" magazine in 1999 that gave the following procedure. "First, get a lot of green, not ripe, black walnuts and squeeze them to extract their juice. Unless you have a walnut press, peel the husks, put these husks between two pieces of sealed plywood (plywood with finish on it to keep the extract from soaking in), and set some concrete blocks on top. Angle the walnut sandwich so the extract flows into a container. After a few days you should have a small amount of liquid. Let it evaporate, and a small amount of crystals will remain.When you're ready to use the crystals, dissolve them in a small amount of boiling water. Add water until you're happy with the tone. At its lightest, you'll get a golden oak hue, but this stain can go all the way to black. Homemade walnut stain applies like any water-base dye, except that when applied in a highly concentrated form (for darker tones) it's thick and sludgy..."

[Brian Tymchak]

Long ago, I used a really strongly brewed coffee to stain some birch-ply cabinets in my parents house. Being water based it raised the grain quite a bit and required sanding and 2nd application. If I were to try that again I would pre-raise the grain with water, sand, then apply the coffee stain twice or more times to avoid the couple of sand-throughs I had. Took more time, but material costs were cheap! But it worked pretty well. Was a really warm lighter brown color. Won't work though if you are looking for a dark stain.

[Mel Fulks]

"Sponging" used to be standard practice for furniture. You block sanded with 150 grit, sponged with hot water, then after it dried you took a NEW PIECE of 150 and sanded lightly just to remove the whiskers. Many of today's finishers have never heard of it.

[Jim Rimmer]

First of all, welcome to the Creek. You will get a lot of good advice here.

A lot of the finishing decision depends on what your project is and what kind of wear it will be exposed to. The dyes are a good alternative, either water based or alcohol. You could also use boiled linseed oil (BLO). It has a strong smell but most woodworkers like it. The suggestions for natural stains are good. Whatever you decide to use, you should take scrap wood form your project, take it through the same prep steps you would for the final project, make notes on how you mixed the stain, take it all the way to the final coat to make sure you end up with a look you want. Final coat could be shellac, lacquer, wipe on varnish mix, wax - lots of choices. It all depends on the project and wear exposure.

A little more info on the project could get you some better advice. Good luck and post pictures when you finish the project.

[Kenneth Speed]

Brian,


Mike Dunbar used multiple coats of very strong tea to emulate old clear finished pine.

Ken

[Kenneth Speed]

Ralph,


I'm not entirely clear about what you consider "natural" but you can use all kinds of things to stain wood; thinned and strained milk paint, Rit dye. Kool aid, Walnut husks ( I soaked black walnuts in ammonia and THAT smells awful!

Ken

[Mike Wilkins]

I recently read an article in one of the UK woodworking magazines that described coloring wood. There are lots of options, other than stains and dyes, that were used by furniture builders long before the Minwax and Sherwin-Williams folks were invented. Berries, walnut shells, grasses, tree bark, dirt, spices were all used by dissolving in hot water and applying to raw wood. Heck, I even got a nice red splotch on a wood project after a finger came in contact with a very sharp chisel.

[Harold Burrell]

I'm on a project right now and I'm at the wood staining stage, but i really hate the smell of wood stain. Are any alternative? Something Natural? and if there's any would you advice me to use it?

You might want to look into using water-based stain. WAY less odor.

[ralph blanco]

Would try those out, negative on the red splotch though lol!

[ralph blanco]

Thanks for the advice guys!

I would try the walnut and coffee, also trying the water-based stain. I'll update you of the result soon!

Again thank you very much for the suggestions, really appreciate it.

[Jim Neeley]

"Heck, I even got a nice red splotch on a wood project after a finger came in contact with a very sharp chisel."

That's best used on small projects.. <g>