Darkening an oak table that has an oiled finish

[Paul Chapman]

My brother-in-law has just bought an oak dining table that has not been stained and has been finished with oil. He already has 6 oak chairs to go with it but they have been stained to a medium oak colour. He wants my advice on the best way to darken the table to match the colour of the chairs.

I have not yet seen the table and chairs but I would be very grateful for any advice on how best to darken the table, given that it already has an oiled finish. He was not sure what oil had been used - he thought it was either teak or tung.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Chris Knight]

Paul,

A previously applied oil finish does not preclude applying a stain but it makes the process rather problematic and especially so since the exact nature of the previously applied finishing steps will be unknown and above all because there are likely to be only a few small areas where the proposed solution can be tried out.

I would first be quite sure that brother in law definitely wants to do this!

To darken the finish I would get Ronseal Dark oak stain (this is a pigmented, all-in-one finish - basically a poly varnish I think) and apply it by rag to an inconspicuous part of the table. following the directions on the bottle. If this works, great, if not, then I should give up right there.

I think any attempts to remove the existing finish are likely to be doomed unless you want to sand back every part of the table to bare wood.

If Terry comes along he may be able to offer better advice and have some Chestnut product which will do the job.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Chris,

Many thanks - that's very helpful and tends to confirm my fears that this could be problematic. I did say to my brother-in-law that I wished he had sought my advice first, before he bought the table :roll: but he got it at a very good price and assumed that there would be an easy way of darkening it.

I would very much like to help him out so I hope Terry or someone else can come up with some alternative suggestions in case the one you've suggested does not work. It's a very big table with additional leaves so neither brother-in-law nor I would be keen to go down the sanding route.

Thanks again for your help

Paul