What stain

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Freemo
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What stain

Post by Freemo »

Just asking what brand of stain people are using. This will be my first experience of it so I may use a bit more than required for the first few attempts.
Thanks everyone
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Re: What stain

Post by pramsay13 »

I use Smith & Rodger Wood Stain but have used Liberon in the past.
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Re: What stain

Post by Not your average framer »

Hi Freemo,

Staining is not just about finding a convenient stain brand, but it's also what is going to be applicable for your applicable methods. For example are you planning to stain bare wood moulding lengths, or the completed frames. It may surprise you, but there can be a significant different to consider. If you are planning to stain completed frames, you may need to fill and sand the odd gappy corner and getting good staining results ofver pre-filled corners, might need a little practice and experimentation. Also some wood types don't always stain very evenly and can be a bit blotchy, so some times there might need to be some extra cleaning and preparation to produce the be results. I like using the Polyvine acrylic wax finish varnishes, which also come in wood coloured stain versions as well, but I also mix my own stains from Acrylic paints and water as well. This works best with acrylic paint colours, which employ transparent paint colours and you need to check which colours these are from the specific paint manufactures data.

Just because one manufacturer uses transparent pigments for a particular colour does not mean that it will be the same for other paint manufacturers, so beware if you are going to mix you own stains. Nearly always mixing your own stains will involve mix different colours to create a right colour of stain for what is needed. Also any particular stain may look a little different on different wood types. If you are using water based stains, you may decide to slightly water down some varieties of stain to lighten the colour a little on darker woods, or to improve the stains penetration. Not all of us are going to be doing things exactly the same way, we are all doing whatever we have found works for us as individuals. Not everyone is producing the same volume of stained wood frames, but for those who are produding larger volumes of stained frames, we are likely to be interesting in how much time it takes per frame to produce the results we are wanting. Getting it right, can save both time and money, so don't be affraid to experiment a bit!

Also find out a bit about Van Dyke crystals, you can disolve these into hot water as after the water has cooked, make minor colour adjustments using arclic paints. Van Dyke crystals only disolve in hot water and don't disolve at all in cold water, so be warned! Mixing larger volumes of stain and then expecting it to keep is not always a good idea as it can sometimes go off!
Mark Lacey

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Re: What stain

Post by Not your average framer »

Both pine and obeche bare wood moulding can be good value for money, if you shop around. Unfortunately, they don't always look geat, if you stain them. Darker parts of the wood grain in pine absorb a lot more stain, than in the lighter areas and often look a bit strange after staining. Also Obeche not only has all those little flecks, which absorb more stain, buy often has blotchy areas which also absorb more stain and produce darker blotches. Having said all that these are the woods which will save you a worthwhile amount of money, if you can learn to avoid these problems when staining them. I buy various different pine mouldings In batches of about 200 feet per moulding profile. These are not especially wide moulding and the particular pine mouldings which I buy, are predominantly knot free. Messing around tidying up and fixing knots is not part of the plan for me. I wash my pine frames with a pale wash made from emulsion paint and water, then wipe off the surplus with a piece of disposable kitchen tissue. The pores in the pine will have soaked up plenty of this and stop the stain from sinking in to these darker areas very much.

I cheat a little bit and don't wait for the wash to dry to much and get a little bit of the wash to add a slightly misty effect to the stained finish. I've been doing this a long time, so I know how to do this just right, but there is a nack to getting this just right, so be warned! What I am after is somethng which looks better quality and potentially like a more expensive wood that just normal pine. If it looks right, then it sells well. I do pretty much the same thing also with Obeche. For me, stained Obeche lacks character and excitement, but there are some fairly interesting narrow moulding profile available in Obeche at the right price,so why not! For basic stained and varnish obeche finishes, I just mix my own stains from acrylic paint and water, using opaque pigmented paints and either add a wax finish top finish, or a Polyvine arcylic wax finish vanish top finish. These obeche hand franished mouldings can very easily look great. I'm also often into stacked moulding frames as well. I really like frames which have got that little bit of individuality and distinction, which does not look too "run of the mill".

Full lengths of moulding tend to be not so easy to handle, if I am finishing mouldings by length, so I find it much easier to perhaps handfinish half lengths instead. Left over bits usually make smaller frames, which I an still sell, if I produce the right frames from them. Very basic, small frames are a bit boring and don't create a lot of interest, but small deep box frames will usually sell, without much effort and every now and then some stuff ends up in the bargain box, which usually will shift most things, if there are a few visitors around. As a general rule, visitors often can't resist looking through that bargain box. It often a bit of a competition, between family memers to see who can get the best bargains and it's often quite entertaining to watch!
Mark Lacey

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Re: What stain

Post by vintage frames »

As some of you know, I've posted a recent discussion on stains in the recent past.
So I won't repeat myself.
Instead I'll talk about saving money and not buying expensive ready mixed stains.

When we talk about stains we're talking about WOOD STAINS.
There are two main types -
Spirit Stains which contain and or dissolve in Meths
Water Stains which contain and/or dissolve in water.
There are also oil based stains, the sort you see in DIY stores but these again can be expensive and a bit messy.

Advice; Go on E bay and buy POWDERED water or spirit wood DYES. 10g or 20g is enough to make more stain than you'll ever use. Just add either meths or water,

One last thing - paints, acrylic or oil are NOT wood stains.
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Re: What stain

Post by Not your average framer »

Yes, that's true! I already have the acrylic paint on hand, which I use for painting handfinished frames and I'm just doing my own thing with what I've already got. The polyvine Acrylic wax finish varnish, is primarily a varnish and they make wood stain coloured versions of it as well. It just happens to be convenient for people who want to apply stain and varnish as one product. So it's not a true wood stain only product, but it just happens to be a convenient way of doing two things at the same time. As many forum members will already know, I like quick, simple and easy. So guilty as charged! :giggle:
Mark Lacey

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Re: What stain

Post by vintage frames »

If it works for you - keep doing it.
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Freemo
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Re: What stain

Post by Freemo »

Thanks for all your replies, it’s not as simple as I thought it was going to be. I have bare wood, not sure what type and I’d like them to be Black.
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Re: What stain

Post by vintage frames »

Maybe just keep it simple.

If the bare wood is obeche, tulip or pine; paint on red primer, sand it smooth and then just paint it black - with black paint.

If the wood is oak then look at the topic viewtopic.php?f=32&t=20313#p148725
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Re: What stain

Post by Not your average framer »

I quite often paint bare wood mouldings which a red oxide base coat, follwed by black top cat which is then distresses to show hints of the red on the edges and this can look really like a very classy effect. It sells quite well!
Mark Lacey

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Freemo
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Re: What stain

Post by Freemo »

Thanks again everyone. I’m in my workshop this week and will have a go at some of the ideas shared. I’m not sure what the wood is though
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Re: What stain

Post by Not your average framer »

Experimenting is the way which I have learned! I would suggest that you try a bit of experimenting as well. It's surprising what you can learn as you try different things. Not all wood types will stain the same and some may produce superior results with some degree of pre-staining preparation. In time with a little bit of practice and experimentation, you too can become an expert!
Mark Lacey

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