Dye concentrates such as Transtint should work or even water soluble dye powders from WD Lockwood which provide a broader color range and are considerably less expensive than Transtint, especially when purchased directly from WD Lockwood.

 

Rather than a ready made stain, you might start with a dye that can be diluted with either water or alcohol. Transtint is one of those. There are others. These dyes come in various colors, both primary and mixes. You can mix these to develop any color you want and they are very easy to use once you find the mix you want. I like to start with a medium brown and add very small amounts of primary colors to adjust it as needed. I favor a mix diluted in water because alcohol dries too quickly, but others like alcohol particularly if they apply it by spray. There are a number of books that discuss this regarding wood finishing. There are some on line sources as well.
You can also add dye to shellac to act as toner and this works very well.

 

The trouble I had with dies is getting it even. Would get darker where I overlapped

 

Use water instead of alcohol. It dries slow enough that you can easily spread it around and blend it without streaks. Yes. I raises the grain a bit. Once dry, spray a light coat of shellac to lock it down. Sand very lightly with very fine sandpaper (maybe 320 grit). Put on a coat of finish and sand a bit more. Etc, etc.

 

BLUF - I am looking for recommendation on a water-based stain that approximates an oil-based Minwax "Red Oak" stain.

The long-version
Hello all, I've been offline for a while as other home renno/resto projects and responsibilities have demanded my attention. As is becoming the norm, the weather turned from hot humid St. Louis summer almost directly to what passes for St. Louis winter here - cold/grey/wet - so I did not get much time to do any projects that require leaving the windows open to air out the house. This means that I can't easily finish trim (or much of anything) using oil based stains. so I am exploring water-based stain options for my interior trim and I am looking for some advice on achieving a desired finish.

The project is my house's interior trim.
After giving up on what remained of much of the mangled douglas fir that makes up my home's 102-yr old trim, I've opted to use southern yellow pine (SYP) which has a similar well-defined grain pattern. I can get fir locally, but it is prohibitively expensive for large projects like creating new and replacement trim for my home.

After some experimentation, I was able to achieve a finish very similar to well-kept 100-yr old shellaced fir using a basecoat of a bright "fiesta orange" minwax stain with a top coat of minwax "red oak"

Here is a test installation in my kitchen (yes I know that the top rail framing the tile isn't joined to the casement properly - the rail is a temporary placeholder. if you are curious, those grooves in the wall are the browncoat of a replastering project - which I also had to pause due to the change in weather).
View attachment 445474

SYP is historical appropriate for a house of my vintage. It is also significantly harder than the "clear" pine that's been locally available and it takes stain better than any "pine" I've bought from a big retailer in the last 20 or so years. That I've been able to get clear SYP from Lowes continues to boggle my mind. This is pushing me to get as much work done as I can before SYP vanishes from the stores for another 20 years...

So, back to the staining question. I've also been able to get a pretty good result using a water-based "general finishes" orange dye stain with a topcoat of minwax red oak.

The problem is that I can't find a water-based Red Oak or equivalent color. The "General Finishes" "Sedona" water-based stain looks similar to the end-state color I am going for. I will be experimenting today with some scraps, but I suspect that I won't get the orange-red color that approximates 100-yr old shellacked douglas fir - even with amber shellac.

I was at my local Rockler and Woodcraft stores yesterday and they couldn't give me a solid suggestion. I am more than willing to experiment, but water-based stain is very expensive ($20-$25 for a pint). The water-based "red mahogany" sample at Woodcraft was significantly more brown than I wanted.

So here are some bottom-line questions:
1) Can someone give me a suggestion of a water-based stain that could give me a good red oak approximate?

2) I am largely inexperienced with water-based stains. Is there an additive like a "trans tint" or other product that I could add directly? If so, what color? Like the water-based stains, trans tint is also very expensive, so I cannot afford to buy a lot of colors to experiment with.

3) Can someone recommend a good book or other resource to learn more about water-based finishes?

BLUF - I am looking for recommendation on a water-based stain that approximates an oil-based Minwax "Red Oak" stain.

The long-version
Hello all, I've been offline for a while as other home renno/resto projects and responsibilities have demanded my attention. As is becoming the norm, the weather turned from hot humid St. Louis summer almost directly to what passes for St. Louis winter here - cold/grey/wet - so I did not get much time to do any projects that require leaving the windows open to air out the house. This means that I can't easily finish trim (or much of anything) using oil based stains. so I am exploring water-based stain options for my interior trim and I am looking for some advice on achieving a desired finish.

The project is my house's interior trim.
After giving up on what remained of much of the mangled douglas fir that makes up my home's 102-yr old trim, I've opted to use southern yellow pine (SYP) which has a similar well-defined grain pattern. I can get fir locally, but it is prohibitively expensive for large projects like creating new and replacement trim for my home.

After some experimentation, I was able to achieve a finish very similar to well-kept 100-yr old shellaced fir using a basecoat of a bright "fiesta orange" minwax stain with a top coat of minwax "red oak"

Here is a test installation in my kitchen (yes I know that the top rail framing the tile isn't joined to the casement properly - the rail is a temporary placeholder. if you are curious, those grooves in the wall are the browncoat of a replastering project - which I also had to pause due to the change in weather).
View attachment 445474

SYP is historical appropriate for a house of my vintage. It is also significantly harder than the "clear" pine that's been locally available and it takes stain better than any "pine" I've bought from a big retailer in the last 20 or so years. That I've been able to get clear SYP from Lowes continues to boggle my mind. This is pushing me to get as much work done as I can before SYP vanishes from the stores for another 20 years...

So, back to the staining question. I've also been able to get a pretty good result using a water-based "general finishes" orange dye stain with a topcoat of minwax red oak.

The problem is that I can't find a water-based Red Oak or equivalent color. The "General Finishes" "Sedona" water-based stain looks similar to the end-state color I am going for. I will be experimenting today with some scraps, but I suspect that I won't get the orange-red color that approximates 100-yr old shellacked douglas fir - even with amber shellac.

I was at my local Rockler and Woodcraft stores yesterday and they couldn't give me a solid suggestion. I am more than willing to experiment, but water-based stain is very expensive ($20-$25 for a pint). The water-based "red mahogany" sample at Woodcraft was significantly more brown than I wanted.

So here are some bottom-line questions:
1) Can someone give me a suggestion of a water-based stain that could give me a good red oak approximate?

2) I am largely inexperienced with water-based stains. Is there an additive like a "trans tint" or other product that I could add directly? If so, what color? Like the water-based stains, trans tint is also very expensive, so I cannot afford to buy a lot of colors to experiment with.

3) Can someone recommend a good book or other resource to learn more about water-based finishes?

Have you considered experimenting with shellac's? You can probably come close with an orange shellac and will have the benefit of sealing the wood at the same time. It is mixed with denatured alcohol, but the alcohole smell, especially if brushed or wiped, dissipates quickly.

 

Just one note on water based dyes:

Make certain that if you go that route to only use metal complex dyes due to the non-metallized dyes having poor lightfastness and can fade like mad w/exposure to even moderate amounts of UV light.

I also thought of another option:

ML Campbell has a brush and wipe lacquer stain in their Woodsong II line and I believe MLC has all the cross referenced formulas for the Minwax stain colors for an easy match. Although they’re solvent based, the solvents flash off in minutes and don’t result in lingering odors, and can be sealed or top coated in under an hour. They’re also a lot more applicator friendly unlike hand applied water based dyes and won’t fade.

 

try lowes
Minwax Wood Finish Water-Based Red Oak Mw215 Semi-Transparent Interior Stain
Item #1658612 Model #MW215-1658612

 

Just checked and they don't have it. The color brochure for the water-based stains doesn't even list red oak and since the paint counter wasn't staffed... ugh.
I'll try someplace else or just wait for the dye powders to arrive.

 

In reality a water based paint is like thinned down latex paint. It deposits the pigments on the surface rather than deeply penetrating the wood like an oil stain. You can get the color but will look shallow compared to an oil stain. It also tends to cover the grain of the wood since it is laying pigment on the surface like paint. If you do change to an oil based stain don't use Minwax. There stains are prone to fading and red is the color most prone to fade.

 

Ack! Of course the most commonly available stain fades. My house faces north so it doesn't get much direct UV, but that's good to know. I use an orange dye stain for the reasons you cite, but getting the right sort of reddish color has been a challenge. In my testing experience "red mahogany" on douglas fir comes out with a nice reddish color that really pops with a coat of amber shellac, but red mahogany over orange-dyed SYP looks brown.

I'm still experimenting. I spent my whole weekend building and installing box beams and didn't get to do any color testing.

I just ordered some aniline pigment powder dyes for further experimentation.

 

stain and paint are not the same thing. personally, I prefer oil-based stain, I have never had any problems with minwax Most problems arise form misuse. Some think it is a paint and have a huge mess on their project.

 

the whole reason I'm even asking this question is because successive generations of people painted the woodwork in my house so many times, with some many different types of paint - it's easier to simply replace all the trim. ...and because a lot of original trim was wrecked - cut, broken, or missing entirely.