Stain / Danish Oil Mishap

[Noah Starksen]

I’m working on finishing an end table that I built and ran into issues.

It is poplar that I stained with Varathane oil stain. The issues are on the shelf and tabletop (stain and finish before assembly for this project). Likely the mistake came that I tried to stain one side of each, let it soak, wipe it off, then flipped and did the same for the other side. I’m guessing I should have let it dry before flipping.

It all looked fine with raw stain, but once I applied the danish oil, there were multiple spots where the stain didn’t appear to soak well and were much lighter than the rest. Looks like finger spots where I probably grabbed and flipped.

So now I am in problem solving mode. Can I just sand it back and reapply the stain then finish? Or will this cause issues because the BLO in danish oil penetrates so the stain won’t set right?

I’m this is for a family member who doesn’t care much, so I’m not going to create a new shelf and top. So my options are leave it with ugly spots on the most noticeable surfaces or sand it back and hope the stain sets.

[Stan Calow]

Noah, no expert replies, so my inexpert reply is to give it a try. Gentle spot-sanding the finger spots and feathering around them, and then the stain with a small brush or tip of a rag, multiple coats and wiping as necessary to get the color close. I dont know Varathane stain, but I know Minwax oil stain has some varnish in it as well, so maybe it does too. And the danish oil is also a mix of oil and varnish. So there's a lot going on. But the oil of either doesn't really penetrate as far as you think.

But having dealt with a lot of finish errors, I know you will always see them even if no-one else does.

[Dan Hahr]

Sand it off if you can. Poplar sucks up stain. I wouldn’t use danish oil though. Use a good wiping or burnishing varnish instead.

Dan