I don't like Gel Stain

[radhak]

This is the third time I have attempted to use my Minwax Cherry Gel Stain in the 2 years since I bought it, and am just as frustrated.

The color of the stain itself is deep and dark, and it's as thick and stick as mud. But once I lay it on, and wipe it off after 4/5 minutes, the impact on the wood is very light, almost like a washcoat. This time I am trying it on pine, and after 3 coats, I am wishing I had gone with shellac or something. I just needed a deeper color to the pine and had thought I'd get it in a couple of coats, but the 10 hours of dry time is taking a toll...

I even thought of not wiping it off as instructed, but that was a holy, sticky, tacky mess. Had to clean it up !

Is Gel stain better suited for any other wood?

[pelligrini]

What grit are you sanding your surface to be finished down to?

[pecker]

I've never used that brand. Only Bartley's and General Finishes brands.
If you need to impart a lot of color, it helps if you don't sand the surface too much first. Maybe just with 100 grit.

More porous woods, like oak, also hold the stain more.

[radhak]

I ended with 320. Didn't think I could be guilty of over-sanding

[pelligrini]

The 320 might be part of the problem. The finer grits won't let the stain penetrate as well on some woods. I usually do sand down to the finer grits though as I prefer lighter and natural looking finishes.

I haven't used gel-stain much. I've got a can of minwax that I've used a couple times. I can't remember the shade, it's not a dark one though.

You might try a coarser grit on a test piece and see what the results are.

[SARGE..g-47]

First... no need to wipe it on an let it sit for 5 minutes as it will start to dry and will be harder to wipe off. Gel stain doesn't penetrate and simly lies on the surface which is the reason one generally choses it for soft-wood to try to avoid splotching which is common with most soft-woods as oil stain penetrates pores and comes up dark there but is lighter on sapwood and tighter grained surface wood. So.. wipe it on, wipe it off IMO.

Two.. if you are trying to make pine take a cherry look you are going to have to use a much darker stain with a red tint as mahogany. The stain will dry lighter than the color on the can face and you have to experiement on scrap to see just what is going to happen with a given stain on a particular wood. Pine is one of the worst to take stain.

Third... you burnished the wood by goint to 320 grit as the higher grits will create heat whick will close pores. You will get a lighter over-all tone and avoid some splotches by closing pores but.. it will make a stain a bit lighter than normal with unclosed pores. I generally use Bartleys but I have experimente on scrap with several on various species I use to know what color will do what.

If you are trying to make pine look like cherry with a cherry stain.. ain't gonna happen as it it not dark enough with pine. Your best bet is to color tint with dye first then use a gel stain over that if necessary. Only advance experimentation on scrap will get you to where you want to go. And be sure to sand the scrap to the exact grit before you apply along with raise grain with distilled water after the last grit and before the final grit where you take off the fuzz on the raised grain.

Good luck...

[radhak]

Thanks gentlemen! I shall try again. Good thing that this was a small enough project (two drawer heads) to not be a huge hassle...!

And Sarge, thanks for the details on the method - every little bit is an education !

[cwsmith]

A few years ago we had our bathroom remodeled and I did the trim/molding work in cherry as that was the sink base cabinet that the LOML picked out. The molding itself was preformed pine (fluted) and purchased from Lowes. I tried the Minwax gel stain, but like you, it just seemed to wipe almost completely off.

Two things I learned, gel stain doesn't penetrate... and nothing really penetrates this kind of machined molding, as it is very smooth and appears to be almost sealed.

In the end, I decided to use the Minwax Polyshades instead and got much better results. It took five coats to get it as dark as the cabinet, and I used an abrasive (3M) pad in between each coat. The results came out fine. I had to wait about 12 hours between coats, as the weather at the time was hot and humid.

CWS

[MilDoc]

General Finishes - beats MinWax hands down every time.

[pbui3057]

Have you tried Rit dye? I read somewhere that you can use the dye as a prestainer to get the color that you want. I tried it with poplar that I wanted to color to walnut and it seemed to work ok. I'll have to look up where I read it. I think it was in a Wood magazine.

[atgcpaul]

Have you tried Rit dye? I read somewhere that you can use the dye as a prestainer to get the color that you want. I tried it with poplar that I wanted to color to walnut and it seemed to work ok. I'll have to look up where I read it. I think it was in a Wood magazine.

This has been my experience with gel stains, too. I use a water based dye
first, then follow it up with gel stain. The dye gets me pretty close to the
final color and I can adjust the final color with the gel stain.