I hate stain

[Willemjm]

These have to match the floors. Sherwin Williams had to mix two batches to get the color right. Picture is the first stain, after an hour or so a different color goes on to get it right.

Floating shelves.

Spray on with 1.3 nozzle and wipe off immediately.

 

[drw]

I am not fond of staining either and especially if you are trying to match an existing color. That said, those turned out beautifully!

 

[woodworkingshop.com]

You know I was admiring the CClamp spider behind these......

Very Scary

 

[Willemjm]

You know I was admiring the CClamp spider behind these......

Very Scary

LOL, above that spider is a Lee Dovetail jig, the big one I purchased 8 years ago. Still in its box, never been opened.

My shop was one of those that had to go up real fast, to produce cabinets while the house was being built. The plan was to make it a really nice shop, which never happened, as it has been slammed with work ever since.

Maybe one day.

 

[Wiley's Woodworks]

I hate staining right along with you. A customer ordered a kitchen bar countertop, approximately 5" x4' in size, sugar (hard) maple. Two days later he did a change order--he wanted the color to match 15 year old kitchen cabinets.

I took a sample board, milled and sanded exactly like countertop, and a cabinet door to Sherwin Williams to find out if they could mix a color matching finish. They mixed up a custom stain and applied 3 coats of polyurethane, just like I would be applying to the countertop. I had one board with 1 coat of stain and one board with 1 coat of stain and 3 coats of poly. The color match was phenomenal. I was genuinely excited about finishing the countertop.

When I applied the stain I followed instructions exactly--brush on, wipe off. Nothing was said in the store and there were no instructions on the stain can beyond brush on, wipe off. That's what I did. The resulting stain was visibly darker than the sample board. I panicked. There was nothing I could do about it, so I finished out the countertop. I had no explanation or clue why my work was darker.

After the countertop was finished and delivered, and the customer was satisfied with my work, I figured out what had happened. On the sample boards the stain could be applied and wiped off in 2 minutes. The countertop was so large--about 17 sf of surface plus 35 lf of edge--that brushing on the stain took a lot longer. This resulted in the heavily brushed on stain sitting on and soaking into the wood for a lot longer time which darkened the wood much more.

Lesson learned: How long stain sits on wood has a huge impact on how much staining takes place. Plan accordingly. Final thoughts: Shame on me for not doing more research on using stains in finishing, and shame on Sherwin Williams for not educating me when I was in the store about the impact of time lapse when using stains.

 

[Graywolf]

I feel your pain Willem.

 

[Wiley's Woodworks]

Oops...The countertop is 5' (feet) x 4' with an asymmetrical radius that lops off one corner. This is how it gets to be ~17 sf (square feet) with ~ 18 lf (linear feet) of edge. Now the numbers are accurate and the whole story makes more sense.

 

[chris_goris]

This is why I threw out all of my stains. And I will never attempt to match an existing color for a customer. Paint is one thing, but stained/dyed wood is another animal with too many variables.

 

[Willemjm]

This is why I threw out all of my stains. And I will never attempt to match an existing color for a customer. Paint is one thing, but stained/dyed wood is another animal with too many variables.

Our biggest challenge is trying not to build anything and buy or sub out as much as we can. The money is in buying and selling. So far we have not succeeded, every custom job has something we have to build because it is unique and we have to match colors to the existing installation.

 

[Graywolf]

Our biggest challenge is trying not to build anything and buy or sub out as much as we can. The money is in buying and selling. So far we have not succeeded, every custom job has something we have to build because it is unique and we have to match colors to the existing installation.

Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it. This is the nature of our business. This what separates you from IKEA and other big box retailers. It’s also why I charge more than most.

 

[HITCH-]

I too feel your "stain - pain"

 

[junquecol]

Love it when a customer said he wanted cabinet stained same color as wood in floor. I would tell them to pick out one board, and I would try to match that one board, as there would be hundreds of different shades on stain flooring. Cal-Tone, a long gone paint company in Raleigh, used to make a tung oil / varnish stain. All matching was done by eye, and it was amazing how well they could match existing stained wood. When we built our house (1980) they did a perfect match for the Golden oak cabinets we bought from IXL. You would think that trim was run at same factory as cabinets.

 

[Willemjm]

Love it when a customer said he wanted cabinet stained same color as wood in floor. I would tell them to pick out one board, and I would try to match that one board, as there would be hundreds of different shades on stain flooring. Cal-Tone, a long gone paint company in Raleigh, used to make a tung oil / varnish stain. All matching was done by eye, and it was amazing how well they could match existing stained wood. When we built our house (1980) they did a perfect match for the Golden oak cabinets we bought from IXL. You would think that trim was run at same factory as cabinets.

If you try your local SW store, they get it pretty close most of the time. For solid colors they use a little device and are a bit off. The industrial division gets it right though. For stain the local outlets seem pretty good. They need a color sample and a piece of wood the same species as what you will stain.

I did a match with them a couple of weeks ago using Cherry. The sample was close to a driftwood color. They gave me a bright green stain which I thought would never work, however once sprayed on the Cherry and wiped off it was a perfect match.

 

[zdorsch]

The sample was close to a driftwood color. They gave me a bright green stain which I thought would never work, however once sprayed on the Cherry and wiped off it was a perfect match.

Did they happen to use a color wheel? Or maybe it’s all done by machine now. It still strikes me as almost magical when adding a “seemingly” different color could change the object color in the appropriate way.

My photography teacher in high school was a master at seeing by eye what needed to be added to fix our photographs.