bluenose":26wuwalj said:
Thank you cammy9r, I'm going to try to wipe it over this morning and will keep my fingers crossed for a good result. If I lose some of the colour from this 'wiping', could I then re-coat with your recommended product, or wouldn't that work now. Thanks again.
I must admit I find it hard to understand why you are experiencing such difficulties. For a simple colour change job which seems to be what you are after, neither dye or stain require complex application procedures. Basically, you flood it on, leave for a few minutes (length dependent upon the carrying medium, i.e., water and oil based = fairly generous time, and spirit based [alcohol, lacquer thinners] very little time) and wipe off thoroughly with the grain using clean, dry, absorbent cotton cloths (old T shirts for example), the last procedure to make sure you get an even colour change without tide marks, dark curtains or drips on lower edges, etc.
So, if after washing or scrubbing off the tacky stuff you've got, the colour has faded more than you like, simply apply another coat of the same Blackfriars product in the manner I've described above. If there's a chance a new application is going to make the colour too dark or intense, thin it with white spirits as much as you like, perhaps as much as 50%. I know Blackfriars suggest a maximum thinning of 5%, but this can be ignored. The solvent for this product is naphtha, and white spirits is compatible with naphtha, so all thinning does is reduce the amount of colourant that gets applied to the wood.
In summary, there's no good reason to now switch to an alcohol based dye or stain that I can think of. You are obviously struggling a bit with what you've got without trying to learn how to handle a different colourant. And, critically, bear in mind that neither dye or stain are protective finishes in themselves. All they do, in either a single, or in generally no more than two applications, is change the colour of wood, after which you apply suitable and compatible protective finishes. An oil based varnish is a suitable finish, but not the only one, to apply over your Blackfriars oil based stain/ dye, but your application technique for the varnish needs to be good to prevent streaking and blotching of the already applied stain.
Keep it simple for now, and build on your experience for the future. The art of finishing at a high level is complex and requires a great deal of learning and practice, but what you are doing is very basic, so for the moment you're really best to stick to simple procedures. Slainte.
