# Staining oak veneer on plywood



## degottsmom (Mar 23, 2015)

I purchased unfinished furniture that is oak veneer on plywood, I have 2 questions. 

1. Do I need to wipe with a Damon cloth to raise the grain as I would on regular oak?

2. Do I need to use wood conditioner prior to staining?


----------



## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

You don't need to raise the grain on oak unless you intend to use a waterborne finish on it. You only use a wood conditioner on woods prone to go blotchy. Woods like pine, maple and alder are woods prone to blotch but oak is not. What I would suggest is because it was unfinished furniture you don't know the history of it so I would thoroughly sand it all before attempting to finish it. If someone dripped a spot of water on it you wouldn't know it until you applied stain and that spot would stain a lot darker. Also you don't know how much the piece has been handled. Skin oils if handled a lot would be like putting a wood conditioner on it in spots repelling the stain in spots making it blotchy. Freshly sanded oak should be an easy wood to stain. I would recommend an oil stain and completely wipe off the excess soon after applying it. You don't want to allow stain to dry on the surface of the wood. Dried stain on the surface can cause adhesion problems with the topcoat.


----------



## degottsmom (Mar 23, 2015)

The stain color we want only comes in water based.


----------



## ryan50hrl (Jun 30, 2012)

Take that stain to someplace like sherwin Williams and ask them to custom match it to good oil based stain. Water based stain sucks.


----------



## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*your plywood is the key*

I used some el cheapo depot plywood on this otherwise quality Mission headboard made with quartersawn Oak. The front and back are completely different colors but the stain was the same. The issue is that the veneer is so thin the stain doesn't penetrate well, stops at the glue bond and you have an problem. The plywood is used in the panels between the verticals.

The back side:










The front side:


----------



## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

degottsmom said:


> The stain color we want only comes in water based.


Well then if you wish to use a water based stain then I would wet the piece down and raise the grain and then sand it again. Otherwise when you put a finish over it the wood will be very rough and will take many coats sanding between coats to make it smooth again.


----------

