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How-To: Staining Wood by Bob Flexner
Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 12:22 pm
by bffulgham
Found a PDF on the Popular Woodworking site this morning that is a collection of a few articles with some How-To and Why info for staining wood. Flexner is one of my top Go-To guys for finishing info.
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/wp-co ... ngWood.pdf
Re: How-To: Staining Wood by Bob Flexner
Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 6:50 pm
by forrestb
Nice to see these references on subjects most of us fear or, at least, aren't real fond of.
I do question one bit of advice though. He says that you can keep adding dyes to get a deeper color. I had occasion to want to do this and talked to Lockwood, one of the water and alcohol based dyes. They told me that was not recommended since it did not work well.
Being a natural skeptic I tried it but was not successful either. Suggestion: try it on test pieces first.
The way to get deeper color with dyes is to increase the concentration.
He correctly says that you should not put a water base finish over oil-based stain, but I didn't see the statement that you can put an oil-based finish over a water-based dye.
Forrest
Re: How-To: Staining Wood by Bob Flexner
Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 6:52 pm
by dusty
Thanks for the link, Bud. I really dislike all finishing related tasks but maybe reading this will ease some of the pain.
More Flexner Tips and Articles
Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 2:52 pm
by bffulgham
There are numerous tips and articles here:
http://news.thefinishingstore.com/?author=12
Forrest: A water-based finish over an oil stain is normally a No-No. But, in my
limited experience, you can seal the oil stain with shellac and then get away using a water-based finish. Like you said....try a test piece first

Re: How-To: Staining Wood by Bob Flexner
Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 4:16 pm
by charlese
NUTS! This is a bad rumor!
I've used water based finishes many times over an oil based coat. It is standard in my shop.
The chest in my icon is an example.
http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewt ... 090#p64090 - Scroll down to the 5th post it says what the finish was.
Also this -

- bowl & remainder of bowl blank (2).JPG (68.21 KiB) Viewed 5528 times
Also the wood chest at the back of the table.
Re: How-To: Staining Wood by Bob Flexner
Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 6:10 pm
by bffulgham
I'll defer to your experience!
Sure nuff worked very well for you!