Finish advice

My wife and I decided to go with dark kitchen cabinets (lots of natural light). I am having second thoughts about the decision because I am worried the stain will turn the end grains of the raised panels pitch black. We wanted to go with black doors but as lightly as possible if that make sense. A friend mentioned that a light coat of shellac will seal the end grain enough to prevent over absorption. Any thoughts or insight would be greatly appreciated. I built them with red oak.

are they already sanded? the end grain usually get sanded one grit farther than the face. which helps the stain to balance out. if you used shellac on the end grain i think that would seal it to much. they recommend seal coat on blotchy prone woods to help eliminate it. i have stainf oak cabinetys with walnut stain and had good results and bryan cowing on here has a bed project that he stained dark just recently for some more insight on what can be done. we have a real good refinisher on here in dave hawksford, drop him a line for more info..good luck

If you take and use 1/3 shellac , 1/3 varnish and 1/3 thinner apply to the doors this will act as a barrier . But your using oak .......why the need for a stain prohibitor ? your going to have dark and light grain no matter what you do. unless you paint them. you can get them even if you seal and spray glaze stains.

I am finishing up 55 oak chairs that I sealed 1st with lacquer and then sprayed on a wiping dark oak work out just how I wanted them too.

On oak endgrain for raised panels, if sanded out to a finer grit...400x-600x, they should stain up like the faces. Using conditioners, like sealers, including shellac can prohibit the penetration of stain, instead of just evening it out. Whatever you use, or whatever the mixing ratios, test out on a sample. If using a shellac, I would recommend a de-waxed shellac (wax free), like Zinsser Seal Coat. You could start out with a 50/50 mix with denatured alcohol. Take the sample out to the final finish (topcoat), as that will reveal the actual appearance.



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Thanks, for the help. I do want the dark and light grains just worried the about the end grain. Unfortunately I did not use a finer grit on the ends. I will have to read through more posts and take notes. The profile is large enough and not complex so I could carefully attempt to sand a little more. I will defiantly use test pieces first, as with most lessons I have just learned the hard way again. Thanks again.