frustrated

[Eric Mims]

I stained some dining room chairs with a dark ebony oil stain (Porter brand)
.. I have let it cure for 3 weeks now, but every finish I try on it lifts the stain. The chairs have been in my house the whole time (68/70 degrees, normal humidity).

Minwax poly satin (oil, unthinned) definitely cuts the stain badly.

Lacquer ate right through it.

Shellac seems 'ok'.. though it is near impossible for me to get it smooth and when I try to sand down any spots, it goes right through the thin shellac and into the stain.

Minwax Polycrylic waterbased varnish wasn't too bad..just didn't look good.. (last resort)


any advice?? I'm going crazy here.. don't want to ruin my chairs!

[Steve Schoene]

There are several possibilities that come to mind so it would help if we started with lots of questions:

Which stain exactly did you use. I don't see a dark ebony in the Porter Wood Guardian Oil Stain sheet. Did you use Jacobean? Is this stain fresh or have you had it for some time?

How did you apply the stain? Did you wipe off excess stain thoroughly or did you have to leave stain on the surface to get it dark enough?

Also of what kind of wood are the chairs made?

Is it new wood, or was there a previous finish?

How were the chairs prepared for staining?

[Eric Mims]

used oak, white and red (kind of my reason for using a darker stain). Wood has never had a finish on it before. Final sanding was 120 sand paper over all surfaces. Stain is a color match of Olympic's Ebony oil stain.. It is Porter's Jacobean with some black and white added I believe...

I put the stain on heavy and left for quite a long time, then wiped it off thoroughly (using a rag, then going to paper towels until only the slightest amount of 'dust' came off when rubbing).. It's been at that stage for 2 or more weeks, dry to the touch.

[Steve Schoene]

Your problem sounds a bit unusual. Often such problems are the result of trying to use the stain as a paint, leaving lots on the surface with only a weak binder. The mechanical action in applying the top coat loosens the weakly bound pigment.

Sometimes stain refuses to cure. In that case it usually continues to feel gummy, and the solvents in top coats redissolve the binder picking up the pigment. Despite feeling dry this may possibly be what has happened. I guess I would wash down the surface with mineral spirits. If not cured, the stain will smear and be lifted. While this would make things look pretty yucky, it would tell you that you would need to remove the stain entirely and start over. If the mineral spirits lifts the stain, there isn't another solution, the stain would have to come off. Use a chemical stripper to get the old stain off. It ought to come off pretty easy, but as you know getting into the various crevices and the like on chairs isn't easy. Tooth brushes help.

[Eric Mims]

thanks steve.. today I wiped some straight thinner on the chairs and the stain came right off.. well it stayed in the pores and left a slight dark tint overall.. but I mean very slight. I went ahead and thinned one whole chair and sanded what wouldn't come off. I also made a 1/2 turpentine 1/2 varnish mix with graphite powder added (I have lots of it that I use to make epoxy black).. It actually looks like this will work. The pores are essentially filled black from the stain and a coat or 2 of the thinned varnish looks basically identical to the look I hoped to get from the stain. I guess I just have to test it out completely and see...