Mrs. SewNSew

I'm staining a table that has taken sun damage in the past. The stain isn't taking evenly and the sun bleached area. I read something about doing a "dirty wipe" but that is just leaving stain to dry on the wood and the directions say not to do that. So... ?

tessagin

What about doing a dirty wipe with a lighter shade of the stain?

miriam

did you strip off ALL of the old finish? You may need to bleach it with something then re-stain. WHERE IS GLENN????????????

Mrs. SewNSew

I DID strip off all the old finish. The goal is to get a nice even coat with the stain. It still had a stain but it was lighter in a couple areas where it probably got a lot of sun. I matched the stain really well and the rest of the table is looking great. I would just like to get more uniform coverage on the table top and I'm not sure how best to do that.

miriam

So the sun bleached area is not taking stain the same as the rest. Have you bleached the whole table? It may be that there is a couple different kinds of wood or something there, too. It may be that the bleached problem area has absorbed more finish into the wood or something preventing it to restain. It could there is wax on some of the wood and it is preventing the stain from absorbing.

Mrs. SewNSew

Miriam, It's my Featherweight cabinet. I don't want to go to bleach since it's not awful..and I don't want to use anything harsh. The top cover sat in the sun and was much lighter than the rest of the cabinet. It must have sat crooked to table so the piece underneath also bleached but just on the edge. Once I got it stripped of finish, being a red maple stain, it was still red so I had to find a matching stain. It's coming along but I still have some light areas I want to blend better on the top.

Right now the plan is to hope Skip comes in with some fabulous advice. Plan B is to try another bit of stain on the light areas and hope it comes in a shade deeper.

ShirlinAZ

Stay with the same stain and follow their directions. Apply additional coats of stain only on the lighter bleached areas. It may take a few treatments, but eventually the colors will begin to look the same.

Mrs. SewNSew

I had tried to even it out last night by doing a "dirty wipe" and leaving a bit of the stain on to even it out. Today those areas were still tacky so THAT didn't work. I applied more stain to those areas (info said it would melt the excess to be removed) and wiped well.

I will try adding additional stain in those areas once it dries and see how it goes. Thanks.

chris_quilts

Wish to say Good Luck!!! I'm no help but do sympathize with you.

Mickey2

Are you using alcohol based stain, water- or white spirit based stuff? Water based will penetrate less than the two others.