Water based dye/stain over sealer top coat?

[Dave Rosner]

Refinishing a pine kitchen table that had lots of marks from my doggie jumping on table. I sanded down to raw wood all the way up to 180. I started with Charles Neil’s preconditioned since it’s pine and I was worried about blotching. Then I used a water based aniline dye - jd moser I think. Today I put on the first coat of oil based arm-r-seal urathane.

The color is is a bit light and I’d like to add another layer of color before I add more top coats. The Charles Neil product instructions mentions this method and I’ve read about adding trans tint or a compatible dye/stain to top coats. Can i put on a layer of dye on a layer of seal coat? I assume most of the wood is protected by the first layer of ARS and the dye will just wipe off? I dont think I can tint the ARS with my water dye so do I need to get a bottle of transtint if I want to adjust the color?

I do have a can of general finishes outdoor water based stain that is the right color. Maybe that has binder in it and that’ll work between the oil based ARS?

Welcome sage advice....

[Wayne Lomman]

Dave, you need to tint the next coat you apply. Applying a waterborne stain direct to your coated surface will not work.

The dye you use needs to be compatible with your arm r seal, so don't use your water borne products. They will cause a disaster. Cheers

[John TenEyck]

I think you have 3 options. You could add an oil soluble dye to the ARS in order to make a toner and use that to adjust the color, then topcoat with regular ARS. This takes a lot of testing. Another approach is to add Transtint dye to Sealcoat shellac to make a toner and spray that to adjust the color, then continue with clear ARS on top of that. This also takes a lot of testing. The third and likely much easier option is to apply an oil based gel stain or glaze to adjust the color, and then apply more coats of ARS after that is dry. You can mix more than one gel stain together to adjust the color, and you can wipe it all off before it dries if you don't like it with a rag soaked in mineral spirits.

John