liquid in some type of carrier or base that allows the hew of the staining to be adjusted from light to dark.
Paste and liquid pigments are usually suspended in an oil or grease base, and in most cases must be
thinned in a compatible carrier. Carriers can be thinned varnish or pure turpentine, or mineral spirits.
Powder staining can be dissolved in either oil or a water base carrier. They can also be mixed in
alcohol, lacquer, or water, and also in turpentine or mineral spirits.
If you want to use powder stains they are very handy if you want to deepen or darkened any ready mix
stains. The stains may have either an oil, lacquer, alkali resin, latex, or water base. Alcohol stains or
water base stains will penetrate quite deeply into raw wood. Oil or alkali, or resin base stains tend to
sink into the wood surfaces only very shallow. The alcohol or water base stains are usually labeled as
"penetrating stains" so the user will know its characteristics. You must work carefully and swiftly with the
stains to avoid overlap which results in a streak finish. Spirit stains, which are alcohol or water base, will
strike in deeply and very quickly, and this will make brush application very tricky. Probably, you can do a
better job if you wipe the stains on with a cloth instead of rushing them on.
The type of staining to use will depend on the kind of finish that you're trying to achieve if you want a very
slick appearance of a lacquer finish, it would be best to use a water base staining to prevent the lacquer
from dissolving the stain and causing it to bleed into the finish. When you apply lacquer over any type
other than a water base staining it will absorb some of the color that is released by the bleeding,
therefore your finish will not be perfect.
I have found that varnish can be use over just about any type of stains, and the varnish stains combine
two jobs into one by giving you a stain and the topcoat of varnish in one application. Many as the stains
have a tung oil base and do an excellence one coat job. If you want the best finish you can get, you will
probably have to use three coats. After sanding and wiping with a tack cloth, apply a sealed coat of thin
varnish or shellac to keep the stains from penetrating to deeply. Use varnish and turpentine in equal
parts, or alcohol and my shellac in equal parts. This type of sealer will dry immediately, and fill the tiniest
wood pores that the seller may have missed. It will also give you a more even stained job. You could
use a brush, then rub the sealer coat with felt and wipe with the tack cloth, apply staining, and then
rubbed with felt. They end wipe with a tack cloth when the stain dries. Applying a coat of rubbed on
Tung oil varnish will finish the job. After the Tung oil varnish dries give the work a final rubbing with felt
and then wipe with a tack cloth. Use a thin coat of varnish to finish it off.
You can also brush the stains on, or rubbed it on, unless you're using a water base are alcohol base
stains. Water base or alcohol base stains are not recommended for the home worker. Seldom, will you
need to apply more than one coat of stain, and if you work both fast and carefully in applying that coat, all
that will be needed before going to the finish coat is too rubbed down the surface with felt to get it a final
polish. You can buy felt rubbing pads in most hardware stores, and always polish the work completely
as that is what give you the best finish.