# Staining/Coloring douglas fir.



## Alaska_Guy (Dec 15, 2013)

I built a piece of furniture and its pretty much all made out of douglas fir plywood. I made the face frame from pine and that actually stains fairly even and I am happy with the even staining.

However, I have tried many different methods and no matter what I do I can't seem to get the fir to stain even. I have tried the following.

Conditioner, then stain.
Conditioner then gel stain
Gel Stain on sanded wood
Steel wool and tea = greyish green outcome
Steel wool and coffee = greyish green outcome, fairly uniform
Steel wool, coffee, then gel stain, a little more uniform, but looks dirty.

Here is a picture of what i think looks the best, and its still far from looking good.

Any ideas? Im about fed up and about to paint it.

Thanks!


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## phinds (Mar 25, 2009)

I don't think there's much you can do about that in staining Doug fir. The early wood and late wood are SO different in density that it's pretty much impossible. Take a look at the bottom of my Doug fir page to see what I mean.


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## Alaska_Guy (Dec 15, 2013)

Well, that's a bummer.... But at the same point, im glad I learned now before I tried to stain the piece... I guess paint it is.

*Edit*

Here is a picture of the stain I used on a couple different pieces of wood (Hickory Gel Stain). So far I like it on the pine the best. I am going to stain the pine piece tomorrow to darken it up and then I am going to use that piece as a key holder in the garage.

Thanks again for all the help I have received on this site. Very informational and never demeaning.

Great group of people!


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Really to get a more uniform color it would work better to use an alcohol based dye stain. This is something that really needs to be sprayed though. You don't have to get high dollar equipment for wood finishes. The cheap sprayers at Harbor Freight would work fine. I use the sprayer #97855 I get with a coupon for about 20 bucks. The dyes are available at Mohawk Finishing Products.


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## Futurepast (Jun 18, 2012)

This stuff works https://charlesneilwoodworking.3dca...e-Color-Conditioner--Blotch-Control_p_47.html


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## Brian T. (Dec 19, 2012)

What phinds said. There's such an abrupt shift in cell wall density and cell diameter in Douglas-fir from early wood to late wood. Probably the single thing that makes Dfir so recognizable in applications which aren't painted.


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