Gel Stain

[oscarthefuzz]

Just a little post about gel stains ..
I was at a seminar on finishes in Lee Valley a wee while ago and the guy that gave it was quite enamoured with gel stains as a finish (especially for pine). I had an project coming up that involved a lot of oak and wanted quick predictable results so I decided to give it a go.

I found the results very good. It was a Varathane gel stain I used (Golden Oak) and I found it quick to go on and reasonably quick to dry.

The main reason for this post however is that in the last couple of days I started using a glue spreader instead of a cloth to spread the glue out, I got great results from this and thought it might be a useful tip to share for people who hadn't tried it already.
Why did I like the glue spreader? Well firstly I got WAY more coverage from a tin. Instead of all that valuable stain going into the cloth it went as far as possible on the wood. Gel stain doesn't soak into the wood much and is designed to sit on top of the wood more, so I thought that there was no real benefit to rubbing it in with a cloth.

Anyway, just thought I would share that as it wasn't something I had seen anyone mention in books before .. there is no difference between the oak beams I did with a cloth and the beams I did with the glue spreader.

[garys]

I'll try that tip using the glue spreader. Can you post a picture of the spreader you used, or a link to a similar one?
Gel stains are the only stains I've used since the 1980s when I discovered them. Once I used gel stain, I could never again go back to liquid stain.

[oscarthefuzz]

Can't actually find a link to a similar one but it is basically a bit of flexible plastic is all .. I ended up getting into a rhythm of spreading with the glue spreader and then rubbin it back with a cloth .. minimal waste..

[wrmnfzy]

Auto paint supply stores sell a multitude of plastic "bondo" spreaders that would work for this.