# Red stain on pine



## Streamwinner (Nov 25, 2008)

SO...

I just finished a small miscellaneous project of building some shelves for our food pantry (which is really an armoir). Since these shelves will be largely hidden most of the time, I picked up some low-grade, stock pine at the box store.

I used some random stain that I never used for a previous project, and it matched the pantry relatively closesly. It was Minwax Red Chestnut.

I haven't used red stain much in the past, but after putting it on the boards they turned out BEAUTIFUL. I guess I was expecting that the grain would be darker after stain, but actually, the grain retained it's blonde color, which made a striking contrast with the (now) red wood. 

So, my question... My first thought was that the sap in the pine grain prevented the stain from penetrating, perhaps because the wood was somewhat still damp or because the sap has naturally sealed the grain. Is this correct? Or is there another explanation? If so, are there other woods that also have this effect with stain?

Very interesting. I was actually hesitant to use some of the boards for such a miscellaneous project.


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## CivilEngineer13 (Aug 29, 2008)

Yep, that's how pine works. The dark growth rings are the summer growth and the light are the spring growth. What you will actually find is that when stained a dark color, the rings will actually invert there colors. Meaning the light spring growth rings will now be the darker of the rings, while the dark summer rings are lighter than the stained spring growth rings. It is kind of interesting in that way. Just because the fibers in the growth rings of the summer are much tighter and do not accept stain real well, where as the opposite is true for the spring growth rings.


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## Streamwinner (Nov 25, 2008)

Thanks for that. Very interesting, indeed.


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## brett (Apr 3, 2009)

pine is cheap. the problem is pine does not take stain well.when useing a dark stain sand the wood with 200 grit before staining this will make the stain pentrate a littile more evenly


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## CivilEngineer13 (Aug 29, 2008)

If your really looking for a very even coat on pine, you just as well go with a gel stain. Sanding will only make the effects of the rings less dramatic.


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## Err1c0 (Sep 1, 2011)

Hello: I would like to pose the opposite situation: my customer (who is very sorry to have chosen pine for the project, as I am) does not want that much contrast. How do I get the denser fiber to accept more stain/dye?
thanks in advance


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