maple trim blotching

[tom]

help! has anyone experienced serious blotching while staining soft maple? i have a lot of trim to stain and i am having serious problems trying to find the right shade and appearance. please help us!

[MadMark]

Maple has a closed grain. As such it doesn't absorb stain readily. You might want to consider dye for maple. The dye particles are much smaller than the stain and will penitrate much more readily. Maple is notorious for being hard to stain evenly.

M

[Wayne]

Maple, Birch, Cherry, and some species of pine all offer similar problems. What you are looking for is something that will NOT be absorbed into the open ends of the wood cells that you encounter on the face of the wood. Three possible solutions come to mind; 1)a dye, preferably a NGR (Non Grain Raising) one for lightfastness. These are available under the Behlen brand at Woodcraft, Garrett Wade, and Rockler among others. 2)a gelled stain such as Bartley's that will not penetrate into the grain. 3)seal the surface with a highly diluted clear finish and follow that with the stain of choice. I would highly reccomend Bob Flexner's book "Understanding Wood Finishing" which is written in layman's language and contains a wealth of information. It is one of the texts used in the Wood Finishing Program at the Dakota County Technical College in Rosemount, MN.

[Tom D]

Being a cheap skate I've used alot of maple and had the same problem. Maple has swerls in the grain at the surface. The best method I have found is to sand to at least 220 then use a good gel stain.