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Staining Unfinished Oak Cabinets

1721 Views 20 Replies 14 Participants Last post by  B Coll
Hi everybody,

I am new to any type of staining or woodworking in general. I am to replace our kitchen cabinets, we want to stain our own unfinished cabinets because it will be the cheapest and we want to make it our own. I am having extreme difficulty.
I have bought exact side panels and doors that will be from the cabinets to test stain colors and technique.
It is oak, and every piece I stain following the same exact procedures, based off what I had seen on youtube or read on the cans, turns out different and I do not understand what I am doing wrong. The door and side panel looked extremely different from each other, and I do not understand which type to use for better uniformity, gel stain, oil based, water based. I am at this point utterly confused and lost, I have spent many dollars just to practice and determine which stain to use and I am lost. The following is the procedure I have used, but the wood has been turning out different, I do not know how people get the same great results with such uniformity

-sand panel/door with 220 grit sandpaper.
-suck dust off panel/door with vacuum.
-Wipe with shop towel.
-Apply oil based wood conditioner with foam brush, wiping excess with shop towel
-Let door/panel sit for 30 minutes
-Apply in the direction of the grain oil based stain on the door/panel
-Let it sit for 5 minutes
-Wipe excess stain, this is where I start to get discouraged, as it does not look right, i am not applying loads of pressure
-Let dry for several hours.

It seems no matter what type of stain I use or technique, it always looks different, color wise and uniformity
Am i just terrible? Wrong technique? I do not know where else to turn for help/advice. The wiping of the excess stain is where I think i may be messing up, but every video I have seen they just wipe it off like nothing, but it seems to act different when I do it, the videos are so uniform in color and look, I am just lost
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Hi everybody,

I am new to any type of staining or woodworking in general. I am to replace our kitchen cabinets, we want to stain our own unfinished cabinets because it will be the cheapest and we want to make it our own. I am having extreme difficulty.
I have bought exact side panels and doors that will be from the cabinets to test stain colors and technique.
It is oak, and every piece I stain following the same exact procedures, based off what I had seen on youtube or read on the cans, turns out different and I do not understand what I am doing wrong. The door and side panel looked extremely different from each other, and I do not understand which type to use for better uniformity, gel stain, oil based, water based. I am at this point utterly confused and lost, I have spent many dollars just to practice and determine which stain to use and I am lost. The following is the procedure I have used, but the wood has been turning out different, I do not know how people get the same great results with such uniformity

-sand panel/door with 220 grit sandpaper.
-suck dust off panel/door with vacuum.
-Wipe with shop towel.
-Apply oil based wood conditioner with foam brush, wiping excess with shop towel
-Let door/panel sit for 30 minutes
-Apply in the direction of the grain oil based stain on the door/panel
-Let it sit for 5 minutes
-Wipe excess stain, this is where I start to get discouraged, as it does not look right, i am not applying loads of pressure
-Let dry for several hours.

It seems no matter what type of stain I use or technique, it always looks different, color wise and uniformity
Am i just terrible? Wrong technique? I do not know where else to turn for help/advice. The wiping of the excess stain is where I think i may be messing up, but every video I have seen they just wipe it off like nothing, but it seems to act different when I do it, the videos are so uniform in color and look, I am just lost
First, be easy on yourself. If your cabinets are red oak, which they likely are, you will not really close matches without toning them instead of staining. Red oak can rub from a grayish similar to white oak, all the way to pinkish. Second, do not sand to 220. Sandpaper becomes finer as you sand and the 220 can end up polishing the wood. In most cases you do not want to sand beyond 150 prior to staining. This will give you much greater success. Third, others may disagree but I have never seen the need for a pre stain conditioner with red oak. Do not over sand, and I recommend hand sanding in the direction of the grain. If the doors were already machined there should be no reason to use a power sander. So your schedule will look something like this;
1. Hand sand in grain direction to 150
2. Vacuum and wipe with lint free cloth
3. Stain as per instructions
4. Test for dry stain by lightly wiping with a white soft cloth. Little to no stain should come off
5. Seal with shellac or a thinned coat of your topcoat of choice
6. Lightly sand with 320. You do not want to break through the seal coat, just knock off the nibs and give teeth for bonding. This is actually more like wiping than sanding.
7. Vacuum and wipe
8. Apply topcoat
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I'm all about different grains of scotchbrite for final "sanding". Purple-brown is my go to for lighter finishes.Similar to 350-400 I guess.
I never use scotchbrite on bare wood. Here, the maroon color (purple-brown) is a medium grit. I have used the grey pads, extra fine, between coats. I sand bare wood with Mirka Abranet or 3M purple paper.
Give it up, pal. You've probably got white oak--very hard but very open; stains very irregularly. Not your fault. You want to keep in mind that a lot of 19th Cy oak furniture was made in New England and almost all of it was painted because of the staining problem.
Actually, most early white oak furniture was fumed with ammonia. Dangerous, but very cool looking. Most of the Stickley and Mission furniture of that period was fumed. I have tried to achieve that look with the awesome medullary rays using a combination of dyes, sealers, and gel stain. Got close, but not nearly as nice as the fumed stuff.
Not to derail the thread but I tried fuming a mantle for an Architect friend quite a few years ago, before YouTube. He collected antique mission furniture as a hobby so he helped a lot with the procedure. It turned out quite well and there's no way to match a fumed finish with stains and top coats.
Very cool
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