# Best Stain For UNsanded / Cheap Wood? (pine / douglass fir)



## Wood4Brains (Jul 25, 2012)

Hi there, Everyone:

I am new to woodworking, so please pardon my ignorance.

What is the best stain for cheaper wood that is UNsanded (or roughly sanded) from home depot? I am using kiln-dried pine and douglass fir wall studs to make clothing shelves and racks for a clothing store, and I am trying to achieve a weathered / rough look.

Would Danish Oil work well? (I understand it takes several hours of applying / wiping to achieve a good finish with Danish oil).

We don't have the budget nor the time to get finely sanded wood. Plus, we actually LIKE the way the roughly sanded wood looks, because our clothes are somewhat hippie / bohemian looking, and we want to have a "weathered" or "rough" appearance to the wood instead of a glossy smooth finish (if you have been to the clothing store Anthropologie and seen their wood flooring you will know what I mean).

I have used Minwax water-based wood stain in walnut on the wood which I lightly sanded and then used their prestain first. It looks PRETTY good in MOST places (I am about 90% satisfied). 

The problem is in the areas that are still roughly sanded, the stain will go on VERY thick and goopy, even after immediately wiping off. 

It looks more like paint; it is just a solid black splotch that covers the wood (you can't see the wood underneath it). I end up having to put a rag over the end of a fingernail or a VERY thin blade and having to scrape it out. (Of course, this then makes it too light / damages the area). It is very time consuming and not all that nice looking.

So would something like Danish oil work better since (as far as I understand) the oils penetrate deeper into the wood and don't pool up on the surface the way that minwax stains do?

Thanks in advance.


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## Dave Paine (May 30, 2012)

*No stain is best for rough wood*

Decades ago we bought a wooden shelf unit. My wife took on the task of staining / finishing. This was not rough like your wood, but it had not been sanded ready for staining. To my wife's eyes it looked ready.

The stain did not go on smooth, as you are observing. The small "valleys" would collect more stain than the "peaks".

I ended up having to strip this down. Not an easy task to remove all the stain. 

I think your options may be :
a) Do not finish. Leave it raw.
b) Apply shellac. I would spray. Different levels of colour available.
c) Apply some type of oil. If you just want the look of "some" finish but no colour, use clear mineral oil, normally sold as "Butcher block" oil. This has no pigments.
Danish oil, tung oil, boiled linseed oil, Behr Scandinavian oil, typically have some pigments. You would have to test to see if this becomes a problem in the rough spots.

Rough wood and clothing racks are not a good combination. Watch out for splinters.


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## Wood4Brains (Jul 25, 2012)

Hi there, Dave;

Thanks for the tips. I really appreciate it.

I think I might go with your final suggestion of just buying some danish oil and trying it out to see how it looks on some test pieces of wood.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Using fairly rough fir around clothing I would put a good amount of oil based polyurethane finish on it to reduce the chance of splinters snagging the clothing.


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## Wood4Brains (Jul 25, 2012)

thanks for the tip about the finish, Steve.


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## Wood4Brains (Jul 25, 2012)

Wow! I just tried out the Watco Danish Oil on a scrap piece of wood and I REALLY like how it looks so far.

I followed the instructions on the can: One coat, wait 30 minutes, apply a second coat, wait 15 minutes, rub dry.

I didn't even prestain or sand it, and it still looks better than the water-based minwax stain I had been using. In fact, I am tempted to by a sander on craigslist and strip the other shelves I already made with the minwax stain, and then re-sell the sander after I am done with it.

the only problem is that the Watco Dark Walnut is not quite dark enough, so I might have to end up blending their Dark Walnut with their Black Walnut oils?!?!?!

I will probably end up testing out a poly coat on it after it dries (they suggest 3 days for drying time).

Man, I really wish I had found this stuff last week BEFORE I stained those other shelves.


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