How to Stain White Pine Lumber
Soft woods can be every bit as beautiful as their hard wood cousins. However, due to the nature of the material, care must be taken when working with them in order to ensure that any staining you do is successful and beautifully finished.
Items needed:
- Wood for staining plus additional scrap for practice.
- 1 and 2 inch soft bristled paint brushes.
- Fine gauge 350 sand papers or a sanding glove
- Work gloves
- Soft wood conditioner
- Chosen color of wood stain
- Chosen clear finish
- Sand the wood well. This cannot be emphasized enough, particularly when using soft woods. As a soft wood, white pine possesses a much more porous surface than a hard wood and leaving a rough sanded finish will only leave more surface area exposed and available to soak up stain. When that happens, your wood turns blotchy due to uneven stain distribution. Always sand the item to be stained well and with the grain. Be very sure that you remove any remaining particles or dust clinging to the wood from being sanded.
- Condition the wood. Unlike hard woods, soft woods have a very open cellular structure. This is what makes them a soft wood. This also means that they very readily absorb any stain you put on their surface, sometimes far more than you originally wanted. This can mean blotchy staining and wasted money. Applying a clear conditioner to the wood surface allows some of that porous nature to be circumvented by partially blocking the pores of the wood with their resins and solids. These conditioners are clear and dry well within 15 to 20 minutes. This means that you can treat the wood and still be well on your way to staining with minimum waiting. Read the instructions of your chosen brand carefully as they often contain a time limit on when the wood should be stained after its application.
- Stain your wood. Put on your gloves, apply your chosen stain and work it well into the wood by using a clean cloth or paintbrush and being careful not to rub too hard. It is important not to over saturate your brush or cloth with the liquid stain as this can lead to blotching.
- Wait approximately 20 to 30 seconds then wipe off the excess stain from the wood. Be sure you read your manufactures instructions on your chosen stain to discover your personal waiting time before removing excess. If in doubt, practice your staining technique on a spare piece of the wood. Typically, the color you see when you finally wipe the excess from the wood surface will be its final coloration once a clear finish is applied. Test your scrap wood to see what difference in color can be had by allowing longer standing times before wiping off excess.
- Let all stain dry thoroughly before proceeding. Wait a full 24 hours if you live in a humid climate. If you proceed to a finish too soon, you can end up with blotchy wood. Always remember to keep the edge of the stain wet. Never stop halfway through staining a piece. If possible, try to work the stain into a corner if you must absolutely stop for the day. This will hide any unsightly overlap when you pick up staining again the next day.
- Apply your clear finish. There are many types of finishes available on today’s market. Select one that you believe right for you. Water based urethane finishes have the additional benefit of drying much more swiftly than their contemporaries. If drying time is an issue for you that may be the way to go.
- Apply your finish in smooth, even coats. Too much finish at once can result in unsightly drip or run spots and will have only roughly a five-minute window in which you may correct any mistakes. Barring that, you can sand out any accidents once the finish is completely dry. Make sure to remove any sanding dust before retouching the area with finish.