Removing finish and stain?

[10digit]

Made a rookie mistake recently.  I built end tables to match several other pieces in my family room using the same species of wood and same can of stain used for the others.  Shot the poly, sat back to admire my work and had my wife advise that the color of the new pieces was much darker than everything else.  I can't believe I didn't make sample pieces first to check the color match.  So my questions to the forum:  is there anything that can be done to correct this?  Should I try to sand off all the stain down to bare wood - this will be quite tricky with narrow spaces between spindles on these mission pieces.  Would a chemical stripper remove down to bare wood or will the open grain of the quarter sawn white oak be a problem?  Can the poly finish be removed and then use some type of glaze product to lighten the color of the pieces? 

 

[ForumMFG]

From the experiences of my finish department, I can tell you that if it is veneer on a substrate you don't want to sand it off, you want to use a chemical to remove the initial coats and then sand it.  If it is bare wood, you can sand it but you may also use a chemical to get you going.

As far getting the right color, I think you would be better off just mixing up a sample and get it to the desired color and then use that formula to create the amount of stain you need and then just re-stain it.  This process might actually go faster then if you were to do something else because then you can run into certain portions of the wood that don't take the color as well as other areas and then you will just keep playing with it all day until it tones out just right.

This is mostly likely the most common solution to this problem but I'm sure others have better ways.

 

[Scottrollins64]

Chemical stripper is the way to go.  I just finished (refinished actually) a QSWO table and chairs.  You will have some dark stain left in the pores.  I tried everything to get it all out.  My schedule was strip 3 times with scraper then coarse scotchbrite (orange or red)  then finer scotchbrite (green) and lightly sand then stain and poly.  I preferred the 45 minute stripper chemicals to the 15 minute "fast" chemicals.  The "fast" got gummy and was harder to get off in the end.  Good luck.

 

[10digit]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.  Fortunately this is solid 4/4 stock with no veener so sand through is not an issue.  Can you give names of the 45 minute stripper you refer to?  And as for mixing up my own color, I am clueless how to do this.  I'm working with General finishes oil based stains - do I mix them together or are you suggesting creating a color from scratch.  I don't know how to do this.

 

[ForumMFG]

As far as mixing the stain, I was saying that because you said the stain color you used was the incorrect color.  So what you have to do is mix up some samples and test them to achieve the correct color.  Once you do this, you mix up a larger batch to do the whole job.

I'm not a finish guy but I am around it a lot.  From what I know, mixing stain is a hard skill to master and something you just don't learn over night.  I'm sure there are resources all over the internet on how to do it.  If I were you I would take a sample of the furniture (or the whole item) to Sherwin Williams with a unfinished piece of the same wood you are trying to use and let them mix it up for you if you are not good at it.  It's not tat expensive and you and your wife will be a lot happier with the results.  (You need to provide Sherwin Williams with a blank piece of wood so that they can use it to sample on)

One thing you can do is that if you have multipal colors of stain laying around you can experiment by mixing 2 or more colors together to achieve the color you want.  You want to start with a base color that is closest to the color you want to achieve and then add very small portions of other colors.  Try them out and as you create little samples, you will know how much and what color to add to achieve your desired color. This process is actually what we do at our shop because we have so many gallons of stain left over from other jobs and it's a waste not to use them.

 

[10digit]

Thanks I'll try that.  PS>  poked around your company's web site and saw some of the projects you have built.  Absolutely stunning and the scale is overwhelming.  The church project is over the top!  Nice work and thanks for your suggestions.

 

[ForumMFG]

I have been blessed to work with a company that works on these amazing projects.  I was not with the company when we did the St. Andrews church ceiling but I have worked on others since I have been with the company.