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Stains on poplar

wrmnfzy

My wife is preparing to stain a poplar fireplace mantle with a mixture of two stains to make the finished product like she wants. Should she or does she need to seal poplar first?

I am terrible at finishing so I’m no help.

thunderbirdbat

My opinion would be to seal it first. Some pieces of poplar take stain really well while others pieces do not. If you look at the pictures of the pie boxes, you can see where some of the poplar did not stain evenly while other pieces did. https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?p=275518#p275518 I would also suggest your wife try out her chosen stain on a couple of pieces of poplar to see how it looks both with and without sealer.

edma194

Agree with the above. Poplar is unpredictable with stains, rapidly absorbing them in some places, repelling them in others. Using a sealer will help out with that. A light stain won't show as much in worst spots but will still highlight any gray heartwood.