Need some advice on staining this trim

Tom Baugues

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Lafayette, Indiana
I'm adding some simple pine trim to an area of my home. I have my pieces cut and fitted now I'm ready to stain them to match some cabinets. I'm using some Min wax wood finish. I cut myself a few "samples" of the trim to try my finish on in order to make sure it matched the excising stained cabinets. When I apply the stain I get this double shade of colors. The wood trim is not spliced or pieced together....this is just weird. My question is if I applied some wood sealer...would it stain more evenly?
Photo is of the samples pieces. One stained and the other not. These were cut from the same trim board. You can see how the stained piece on the right is taking the stain in two different ways. Why?

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2 things about what your doing.
1. It does not look like pine.
2. If it is and you want to match an old pine natural finish there is a simple way to do it. But I would want to if that is so befote I go into the procedure. If not you can seal it with 40 percent shellac 10 percent BLO
AND 50 percent alcohol. Brush on , wipe off excess after a few seconds. Let dry and then stain.
 
The difference in the size of the cells between summer growth and winter growth is vast, so color absorbs differently. To achieve some uniformity, sealing is needed.
 
Depends on the wood, Tom. The cell size is especially an issue with soft woods. Hardwoods that are face sawn, as opposed to quarter sawn, can present this problem too. The cell can be sliced at an angle that accepts more or less color. Sealing is easy and inexpensive.
 
The difference in the size of the cells between summer growth and winter growth is vast, so color absorbs differently. To achieve some uniformity, sealing is needed.

For me I don't mind the color disparity but Pine also has a bad habit of blotching horribly across big sections of the board (due to slight variations in sanding quality or wood density or just plain pine in a pain). Even with "conditioner" I still have problems with pine blotching (I haven't tried Daves formula but odds are close to 100% that it would work better :D)
 
The difference in the size of the cells between summer growth and winter growth is vast, so color absorbs differently. To achieve some uniformity, sealing is needed.

If I have this right basically you put a clear sealer on than apply stain on top of that to tint the sealer. :thumb:
 
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