Blotchy stain on Pine Dining Table - HELP!!

[jamesdpmullan]

Hi,

I sanded back a round pine table which looks fine, however, i applied Colron Refined Georgian Medium Oak Wood Dye and it has come out really blotchy.

Im guessing i will need to sand back and start again but what do i need to do to either stop the blotching with this stain or is there an alternative finish i should be using?

I just want the top to be a nice either pine colour with the protection or a light stain without the blotching

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Pine is well known for its tendency to take up dye unevenly, along with quite a few other wood species, e.g., cherry, maple, etc. This is because of variations in the hardness of the wood - softer patches absorb dye more effectively than harder patches.

A technique used frequently is to lessen this disparity in absorbency is to apply a thinned coat of a film forming finish between final prep work, e.g., sanding and subsequent dying. French polish (shellac) is good for this. You take some ready mixed shellac, thin it anything up to 50% -70% with alcohol (meths) and apply with a brush, cloth, or spray gun. Let dry, and sand back. The idea here is the shellac partially blocks the absorbent quality of the softer wood more so than the hard wood. After that, apply the dye and your chosen subsequent finish. As ever, the advice is to experiment first on some scrap first to find out what works best before committing to a particular procedure.

In your case, you need to remove the existing dye and, apart from trying to wash it off with a compatible solvent, you may simply have to sand back and start again. I can't recall for sure, and the Colron website doesn't say, but I think the solvent for those dyes is alcohol (meths), so try washing down with that along with either OOOO steel wool or a grey (fairly fine) Scotchbrite type pad. The solvent may not be alcohol, and a sniff test should tell you if it's something else, e.g., white spirits or water, which you would try and use to remove or at least reduce the existing colour. Slainte.