they don’t offer any protection. Any time you use a stain you should
follow up with a finish.
Stains come in two different thicknesses. Most stains are very thin,
almost like water. These are fine for many projects especially if you have
a lot of flat horizontal surfaces. But if you have a lot of vertical surfaces
then you could use a gel stain. A gel stain is just that, stain that is very
thick, just like a gel. The advantage to this is it won’t run down a vertical
surface like regular stain will so it’s less messy. Gel stains typically stain
more evenly (no light and dark spots) than liquid stains but less dark
because they aren’t soaked up into the wood pores.
Finish
Finish is used to protect wood from wear and tear and moisture. There
are hundreds of products on the market sold as finishes so we’ll just look
at the most common.Oils
Oils are used to bring a “warm” look to the wood. There are two
common types of oils: Linseed oil and tung oil. Linseed oil is derived
from the flax plant. Look for boiled linseed oil; it dries much faster than
raw linseed oil. Apply linseed oil with a rag and allow for it to sit for 30
minutes to an hour. Go back and wipe off any excess oil remaining. The
label will tell when the piece should be dry enough for use.Read the label carefully. If rags are used to apply linseed oil (which is
the easiest way) they should be laid out to dry and not wadded up and
left to dry. As linseed oil dries, it produces heat. If rags are wadded up
and the heat builds they can catch on fire. Just make sure the rags are
spread all the way out on a concrete floor away from open flames or
outside in the grass until completely dry.Tung oil is derived from the nut of the tung tree, which grows in Asia
and South America. Tung oil and linseed oil are similar in how they will
make wood look. Tung oil is a little better in protecting against moisture