refinishing a table bench

[charles mathieu]

My sister has this white oak table bench that is just plain varnished from the factory. She wants to stain it black so I have to strip the finish first. What would you recommend ? I was thinking about using my dewalt 13" planer or my jack plane but I don't know if it will ruin my blades or not. Sanding is another option but sucks...then there's the chemical stripper option. Bench is about 12" wide and 6-7' long

[Prashun Patel]

Have you considered a light sanding, shellac seal coat, then painting it?

[Jim Becker]

I'm with Prashun on this one as "staining" black is pretty much an impossible task.

[John TenEyck]

If you want to still see the grain you should first strip it with chemical stripper, then lightly sand it. Once you are down to clean wood you can make it jet black by applying India Ink. You can buy it on Amazon by the pint or quart for a very good price. Once it's black you can apply the clearcoat of your choice, but I recommend using a waterborne product to avoid yellowing over time. With India Ink you won't fill or hide the grain like paint will.

You can get the same result after stripping, by spraying it with black Krylon spray paint, and then clear coating that.

John

[charles mathieu]

I'm with Prashun on this one as "staining" black is pretty much an impossible task.

Not sure why staining is impossible, when I google black stained wood, plenty of results show up. Painting is out of the window for sure. Here's what I'm looking to accomplish :

[charles mathieu]

So planer, handplaning, sanding or chemical strippers ?

[Prashun Patel]

Hand scrape some of the finish off with a card scraper, then run it through your dewalt planer. sand the planer marks off with 150 grit, then stain.

Harder, better results:
Hand scrape some of the finish off with a card scraper, then run it through your dewalt planer. sand the planer marks off with 150 grit, sponge on black Transtint dye or India Ink, then stain.

A gel based stain can also be used to supplement uneven coverage on partially sealed wood.

[Mike Monroe]

My advice is to follow JTE's advice.

[Mark Daily]

Here’s some information on ebonizing ash but I’m sure it would work on oak too.

https://www.woodworkerssource.com/bl...eid=129a844ef0