Surprised - Stain Wouldn't Take???

[Al Launier]

I just finished making a different type of knife block out of hard maple. I applied a Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner to prevent blotching. After allowing 15 minutes to absorb & then wiping off the excess, & drying for several hours I applied Minwax Classic Gray stain. This was left on for ~ 15 minutes to soak & then the excess was lightly wiped off. Unfortunately, it mostly came off with no absorbtion into the wood. Instead it was lightly streaked & smudged. I've stained hard maple before, but haven't had this problem. Looks like I may have to paint it instead. :mad:

Any thoughts?

[Rich Riddle]

First, what a novel idea for a knife block. Second, I would try many things before painting it. Can you remove the Minwax product you already applied? If it didn't absorb the stain, that more or less implies it served as a blocker and sits near/on top of the surface like shellac. If you can remove it and then apply shellac, and finally finish, this may help. I also know people who keep applying coats of shellac and no finish. I typically use an oil on knife blocks, but mine are no where as crafty as yours is. For the record, I don't touch anything that says Minwax. Steve Mickley warned me against it years ago.

[Al Launier]

Thanks for the suggestion Rich.

This knife block concept is not my original idea. I saw it once before, a long time ago, kept a picture of it & it finally surfaced to the top as a project gift for Christmas.

I'm not sure if I can remove the Minwax prestain. I've tried mineral spirits to no avail. Not sure if acetone would help, or hurt. Plus I don't know if I need to "soften" the grain to help it absorb stain. Really surprised!
Sanding everything may be an option, but I'm not up for that after all the time already spent sanding.

[Adam Herman]

what grit was it sanded to? i have used that conditioner on hard maple and had good results. i sanded to 100 grit only. though, i used a toung oil varnish over it and not a stain.

[Jim Becker]

Maple isn't going to do very much at all with a pigment based stain like the Minwax products. You really need to use a dye to get color in a hard, close-grained, small poor species like Maple.

[John TenEyck]

You could clean it up as best you can and then spray it with a shellac toner - I use Sealcoat shellac with Transtint dye to make any color and hue I want. If you spray it it won't blotch. Then you could topcoat it with any finish desired.

Another option is to use a gel stain over what you have now, and then topcoat that. I've had excellent results with GF's OB gel stain on maple. One coat of Java on the left; two coats on the left; Arm-R-Seal gloss on top.

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John