Do you need to sand raw wood before using gel stain??
jaybee76
| Posted in General Discussion on
If gel stain sits on top of the wood, and the wood has been recently planed, does it need to be sanded?
this is with exception to some of the open grain/end grain or defects from the planing.
What would be the benefit in gel stain’s case?
This would save me a lot of time if not, and would solve many of my inconsistency issues with this doug fir grain and stain
THANK AGAIN
Replies
I assume you are talking about hand planing. I say yes to either hand or machine planing. Others who do a lot of hand planing might give you a different answer. Also, it might depend on the final effect you are after.
Don't take the "sits on top" information too literally. There is some penetration. Maybe not as much but, enough that defects will still be accentuated and some blotching can still occur in wood prone to do it.
The advantage to me is that is easy to use with less mess, particularly on vertical surfaces; no runs, no drips, just wipe in on and wipe it off. Plus, it works better on blotch prone wood.
So, if it will still blotch on blotch prone woods, is a conditioner still to be used?
Skipping a whole step and getting consistency is why i was debating gel stain.
But it sounds like i may still get blotching and I dont think ive seen conditioner being used with gel stain in any of the things ive looked at recently.
They are doug fir stair treads with some character but i dont want a ton of blotches. Some around the knots are expected and with some of the "squirrely" grain it gets I wont avoid it all.
These are machine planed and with a lot of research on doug fir, many recommend not going past 100-120 grit on it because it closes the grain. Once I learned this little tidbit it answered a lot of the problems i had with stains coming out completely different on the same piece of wood
I have no experience with doug fir but, my guress is than a conditioner might be appropriate. Do some tests.
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