How To Achieve Very Dark Stained Wood 

If I can’t get Emtech product, what would be the next best option that I can find at local home improvement store for the final clear coat? Possibly Minwax water-based,matte finish Polycrylic Crystal Clear Top coat?

Shellac can be used over any finish-- oil, water based or other shellac. You should be fine.

It is excellent stuff--I did a previous video on it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-g4RHnzcx8gI.html

These products are expensive if bought online. I recommend that you go to your local Home Depot, Lowes or paint store and you should find these products or something just like it.

@@enduringcharm man, you are a stand up guy. Most people would just link to it with an amazon link so they make money if someone buys it from that link. You have my respect for offering sound advice on how to save money!

Some wood species such as pine, oak, and fir have pronounced differences in the grain pattern. When you sand the wood the softer areas tend to wear away more quickly than the harder lines of the grain. That telegraphs those lines in the staining process. Since you've already stained and since you probably don't want to start over, I think your best option now is to put down a sealing clear coat using a shellac based sanding sealer or other product. When that dries you can use a gel stain as a glaze on top of the seal coat. Since the glaze sits on top of that clear coat it will be more uniform and you can choose how dark or light you want to make it. Once you are happy, put down two coats of a clear finish such as polyurethane.

That's a great question. So, there are some differences, and maybe this little demonstration on a rustic tabletop isn't the best example. With paint, you can obviously get whatever color you desire. The final finish, though, is just going to be that paint and whatever sheen the paint imparts. With a stain AND a glaze, which is what I would normally do, you will get some wood grain coming through from some species (certainly oak, ash and the like.) With a very heavy glaze like I used here in this example less grain will show through, for sure. However, the glaze is then followed by clear coats of poly or whatever else. That tends to make the wood look like it is stained rather than painted because it adds depth and it's own sheen. Even from 20 feet away you'll be able to see the difference between a paint and a stain/glaze with a clear coat. It's that depth that you can't really get with a paint. For a rustic example like this tabletop a paint might be just fine, honestly. But for a more refined piece of furniture or cabinetry, the glaze and clear coat are going to look much nicer.

@@enduringcharm Thank you.

Ah a well asked and well answered question I thought the same thank you

You can paint to get this darker color, but it will look like paint. Using stain and glaze to get the darker look does allow some of the texture to come through, which will vary depending on the type of wood. And then when a clear coat is applied it will appear like a dark wood with a greater depth to the finish. If you use paint then you can't use a clear coat and sheen will not have the depth of a clear coat.

You can see grain on the video still shot before it even starts.

If you look in your local stores for a very dark gel stain, there won't be too many options too choose from--I think this one was called "coffee."

Thank you so much for your reply!

That's a great question. I have used bondo to repair small imperfections in wood, and I have stained the bondo as I was mixing it using powdered dye. That experiment actually worked pretty well. But, in your case the patches are already there. One option you have is to make new repairs while you are refinishing. This might be in the form of "dutchman" repairs, which are fairly thin wood patches fitted into the surface using a router or chisels. Since the repair is wood, it should take any stain or dye in a similar manner as the rest of the surface. If you don't want to get into that, using a process like I showed in this video can probably work. What you might find is that the bondo patches reflect light differently than the wood. This can be helped by sanding the whole top with a random orbit sander, maybe stopping at 180 grit rather than going finer. Then apply several coats of shellac, sanding lightly by hand with the grain between coats. Then you can apply the gel stain heavily and see how you do.

If you are working with oak, there are two factors to consider. First, oak is an open pore wood, so unless you take steps to fill those pores and sand the surface smooth, they are going to show through the finish. Often oak has a thin finish for this reason, since a thicker, built-up clear finish tends to look like plastic and rough. Second, if you are working with cleanly sanded oak with no prior finish remaining, then you'll find that it stains very well and you can probably get a dark color with little trouble. Oak, unlike some softwoods, will take the stain deeply and evenly and you can find very dark oil based stains which go on easily. So I would first try a very dark penetrating stain and see where you get. Then you can add a surface glaze if necessary. You can complete the process with a tung or boiled linseed oil or a dark Watco oil instead of a polyurethane. However, if you fill the pores, then you may need to rely on the glazing because the filler may not take the stain as well.

Well, that is the first request I've had on that subject! Believe it or not, I also have a great answer for you. There is a boutique manufacturer of water based finishes in New Jersey called target Coatings. They have some killer products, one of which I reviewed on this channel. I know they make pigmented lacquers, and that could be your solution. They will also give you technical advice, so you can email them and ask. Great company. Here is the website: www.targetcoatings.com/

@@enduringcharm He-he, not something one encounters every day . . . but apparently no problem! Okay, a water-based pigmented lacquer is what I am looking for. My plans tell I shall craft the manuals in solid oak, for the density of the grains, but I understand this wood has quite a textured finish, which led me to believe staining would most suitable-also to enlock the black, to ensure of no fading after years of playing. Is the best option, though, to use the aforementioned lacquer, to then wax the keys-as I also desire a durable gloss? Worth noting: I have no experience in wood, but have recently picked up quite much knowledge, since I got the idea of executing this project, and am a fast learner. Also, I am located in Stockholm, Sweden, so would there be any general products to use, or is this actually difficult to achieve with such? Thanks for the help! Really appreciated. :-)

To be clear, you were thinking of using oak for the actual keys themselves? I think that would be a poor choice for several reasons. Oak is an open pore wood, which presents problems in finishing but also in playing if the keys were made of it. From the finishing standpoint, open pore woods will take a stain well enough but achieving a smooth finish clear coat is difficult. It requires filling the pores of the wood during the finishing process, which would be a nightmare with small pieces used for keys. In addition, a musician playing oak keys would find the texture annoying and disruptive to flow and speed. There are many other smooth woods which would be more appropriate. Steinway pianos were once made with ebony for the black keys. Pine and spruce are sometimes used, although that would be more difficult to find today in high quality. Birch, maple, cherry and poplar would be other options. I'm not sure what you have locally in Sweden. That pigmented lacquer I mentioned can be applied with a high gloss, but it may not be available to ship internationally. Instead, you could source a dark stain and use a clear lacquer or polyurethane over the stain. You'll probably want to spray the finish for uniformity and ease of application to the many small pieces.

You mean an exterior deck? If you have used pressure treated pine it won't be easy to achieve a dark finish unless you use a solid or semi-transparent stain, and those generally do not hold up well on flat, horizontal surfaces. You may get a year or two out of an application.

Yes, you can use gel stain over the stain you already put on and the gel stain is essentially a glaze then. However, just be cautious about compatibility of finishes as far as oil or water based.

I don't recall now, but most of the manufacturers call this something like "mocha" or "coffee." There should be a color chart when you go to buy your gel stain.

Plywood will soak up any stain or glaze like a sponge. So, you should seal it well before going with a glaze. You could stain the plywood and then apply a shellac before you do a glazing step, or you could seal the plywood with a shellac or other clear finish before relying entirely on a glaze for the color. You may want to do multiple coats of the shellac or other clear finish to avoid the grain telegraphing through if the grain is unattractive. In any case, I highly recommend cutting a few 6x6 squares of plywood that you can use for testing before committing to a process.

Ok Thank you so much for the advice. I shall try a few test befor committing.

Oak has pretty significant open pores on the surface, which can complicate finishing. If you don't mind those pores in the finished product, you can leave them be and you will see some surface texture through the final finish. If that does bother you and you want a smooth finish, you need to fill those pores as part of the finishing process. That said, oak does take stain very well and if you are sanding down to bare wood I'd suggest you first try a regular oil based stain rather than a glaze. Get that as dark as you can and then if you still need more you can apply a glaze on top of the stain. Obviously you'll want to experiment on a piece of scrap oak first to ensure color compatibility. I find oak to be a pretty forgiving wood as far as staining and glazing, but those pores can be trouble for the clear finish coat. One option is not to use a clear polyurethane at all, but cover the stain or glaze with an oil finish such as boiled linseed oil or Danish oil. The latter comes in dark colors itself and is very easy to apply.

The answer is almost certainly "yes." However, I believe that polyshades product may be oil based, so let it fully cure over a period of days. Then you can try a gel stain on a small spot and see how you do. If it isn't working, you can wipe it off with mineral spirits if it is an oil based product. Once you are happy with the color, you will need to apply a clear coat over the gel stain, and make certain you use an oil or water based product as appropriate for the gel stain you used.

@@enduringcharm Thanks for the info. I had one other qq. Should I sand after applying the polyshades and prior to the gel stain?

Again, test before going all in, but probably you will not need to sand the polyshades.

I can't recall this one in particular, but typically they are called "coffee" or "mocha" or something like that.

This was an extreme example, to be sure. However, even in this extreme the glaze allows more of the grain and texture to show through than would paint.

To be clear, this was an extreme example. Gel stain can be used less liberally in order to allow the grain to show through. The point of this particular video was to show how far you can take the process.

You can do what he did except wipe off the gel stain after so many seconds. Then let it dry and do it again. Pretty much just stacking on very thin layers. The grain will still show. I did this for our kitchen cabinets in the house we bought as they're that builders grade golden oak veneer and I was a bit spooked to sand them down enough to do a regular stain job. Unfortunately took like 7 coats of wiped off gel stain to get as dark as I'd like as opposed to the 1 or 2 you'd get here. Still, I much prefer having the grain as opposed to the painted look. Great budget idea for refinishing veneer, but IMO would be a PITA to use on real wood when you can just sand it down well enough for a regular stain.