# Rubberwood/Parawood Staining + Staining Novice



## likethesearchengine (Nov 7, 2011)

Hi all,

I am new to staining, but I have read a lot and gotten an experienced friend to help me apply it to the first (of way too many) pieces.

1) I am doing 2 tables, 10 chairs, and a kitchen island. This is all new, unfinished parawood. My plan is to apply Minwax English Chestnut oil-based stain in two coats to them, followed by glossy poly. I am following the sanding instructions, but I am not pre-treating the wood. Sound reasonable?
2) I test-stained a stool, one of the 10 chairs. I figured I would start with one of the two cheapest pieces to get an idea of how things would go. I'm glad I did - on the wood, I* have found that there are little blotches that do not take stain...* at all, essentially!  Once I wipe the excess off, it looks like several dime-or-smaller size areas were not stained at all. It happened in three places one the stool. Two spots next to each other on the seat, three spots by each other on a leg, and a couple of blotches on side of the stool. Did I do something wrong? How can I get the stain to stick there?
3)The store I bought the parawood from uses ZAB stains, as opposed to minwax. They claim that those stains are more topical and less penetrative. (Like polyshades, maybe?) Anyway, do you think they use those because of this problem, or something? We didn't choose those stains because we didn't love any color in particular.

Thanks!


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## wdkits1 (Jan 16, 2009)

What you are seeing is glue splatters from sloppy workmanship at the factory. I had this same problem when I did the staining and finishing on a dining room table and 10 chairs. Can't see the glue until you apply the stain. Only thing you can do is use card scrapers and sanding the spots down to clean wood then re-stain. I cussed the whole time I worked on these things.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

Was your test piece sanded, and if so with what grit?












 







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## likethesearchengine (Nov 7, 2011)

Yes,

Sanded with 220 grit, thoroughly. The rest of my pieces were sanded with 220 or 320, depending on what came to hand.

Re: glue spatters: Well, THAT is aggravating. Good to know, though. How much sanding is necessary, with what grit? Can you give me a little more detail on how exactly to go about fixing this problem?

Thanks so much!


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

likethesearchengine said:


> Yes,
> 
> Sanded with 220 grit, thoroughly. The rest of my pieces were sanded with 220 or 320, depending on what came to hand.
> 
> ...


I wouldn't sand past 180x.












 







.


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## likethesearchengine (Nov 7, 2011)

I can change my sandpaper.... but just about everyone is saying 220-320. That's what the guy at the furniture store and the guy at home depot both said. What's the benefit of the 180 grit, and whats the detriment?

So.... can I just sand right through the stain and reapply it on the blotchy area? Or do I have to do it all over again?


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## wdkits1 (Jan 16, 2009)

Depending on how deep the glue has penetrated the wood you may have to sand with 100 grit to get the glue off then go to 150 then finish with 180 or 220. I know it took alot of elbow grease and I had to sand through the stain in a big enough area so that the new stain would blend in. I used the round nose card scraper to get most of the glue off but still had to do lots of sanding. Now when I finish parawood furniture I add about 20% more for aggravation fee. Like I said lots of cussing involved


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## likethesearchengine (Nov 7, 2011)

Well... crap.

I wonder.... if I lightly wet the wood all over, would the glue show up? I'll have to try it tonight.


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## del schisler (Nov 5, 2009)

likethesearchengine said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I am new to staining, but I have read a lot and gotten an experienced friend to help me apply it to the first (of way too many) pieces.
> 
> ...


go here and learn about blotching . I use the blotch control on every piece i make. Blotching is where the soft grain take the stain more than the hard grain thai is why you need to use a blotch control. I make lot's here is the link http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=InTheWorkshop#p/u/35/IfCYMdrP8rM


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## likethesearchengine (Nov 7, 2011)

I'll take a look, but I think wdkits has the right of it. These areas just won't take stain at all. I even painted some stain right onto the spots, and it still hadn't taken a couple hours later.


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## pingj (Nov 29, 2010)

cabinetman said:


> I wouldn't sand past 180x.


Just curious why you say not to go beyond 180x? I was always tought to go to 220 or even 240 depending on the wood type and the type of finish you were doing.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Sanding with 220 grit paper will do more polishing of the wood and make the surface more tight and dense. Sanding with 180 grit paper will do more cutting and chances are would have taken the glue spots off. Also the finer you sand wood the less the wood will accept stain so when you are trying to stain dark like the English Chestnut this will help. Generally the only time you should sand finer than 180 is when you are planning to use a oil finish instead of a film finish.


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