Finishing advice wanted

[Eldanos of KDM]

Hi everyone,
I've done small staining jobs before, but have never enjoyed doing it. Always hard to keep everything even, no matter how methodical I try to be..
Now I have a large dining table and chairs to darken. They're Tassie Oak and are being stained to a very dark brown. I have acheived the finish on several samples, but don't know how I'm going to go staining so many things at once>>> and keeping it even.
Any tips on strategies? I'm scared to go into it all without some sort of gameplan..

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Eldanos of KDM]

To get the desired colour I have sanded the samples to 120G with a R.O.Sander and used Wattyl Walnut and Black together with a very small amount of Feast and Watson Mahogany Prooftint to make it perfect. I'm just hoping someone's got some tips that might make it slightly less of a struggle. Cheers

[Woodwould]

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <wompatibility> <wreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <wseAsianBreakRules/> <wontGrowAutofit/> </wompatibility> <wrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</wrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> If aiming for a dark finish, it's always better to begin with a dark timber. That's not of much help to you now though. If you have limited experience with staining, then probably the best approach is to first apply a barrier, commonly known as a 'conditioner'. It doesn't condition anything, but acts as a filter to slow down the take up of stain in the more absorbent areas and block it in less absorbent areas.

The conditioner can be a diluted coat of the intended finish, glue size, or a commercial product; much will depend on your chosen finish, which is…?

[Eldanos of KDM]

Hey WW, Thanks very much for the advice, I thinned out the stain as a precoat and it has been good and done what you said it would. Sorry I didn't reply earlier, was busy staining- Will post before and after shots when I'm done. Thanks again mate

[rhancock]

Hey, any chance of some of those before and after shots? I've got a tassie oak hall table I'm trying to work out how to stain, so I'm interested in your experience. Like you I'm trying to stain TO to a dark walnut colour.

[Eldanos of KDM]

Hi mate, I had a pretty positive experience. Here are some shots- turned out well, but took a while to get it all right.. Will send you my 'recipe'
https://www.woodworkforums.com/member...-table-chairs/

[rhancock]

Thanks, Dane. Steve has suggested I try Van Dyke crystals, so I'll have to experiment a bit.