Blotch Free Staining

By Joseph Fusco

It happens, wherever you try and stain woods like pine, maple, birch or cherry you inevitably get some blotches. How you go about controlling the blotches is quite easy. All you need is an inexpensive can of 3# cut shellac, Bullseye brand comes to mind. Blotches form on these type woods because of cell density , hardness and grain orientation.

Softer wood absorbs stain more readily then harder wood on the same board. The travel of the grain sometimes moves vertical and when the board is cut, the grain is cut and forms small patches of what can be best described as end grain. It's these areas that absorb stain at different quantities that causes the blotchy appearance. Stain "conditioner" is sometimes recommend to help prevent/stop the stain from appearing blotchy.

Their purpose is to be absorbed by the areas on the wood that will absorb the stain more readily. They in effect fill the area up so they can't absorb the stain. For all intent and purpose they work OK, but they are expensive in the fact that they only have one purpose. This is where shellac comes into play. Shellac makes an excellent wood conditioner and general sealer/barrier and finish coat. Buying shellac gives you more options then just buying a "wood conditioner" in my opinion. A quart can of shellac is about $6.00 and a gallon is $ 13.00, for this I'd rather purchase something I can get more uses from.

Here are the simple steps to "conditioning" the wood to help limit blotching.

Start by first sanding the work to at least 220 grit. This will provide a smooth surface and remove any blemish remaining on the wood. You can accomplish this by starting with 80 grit and working your up to 220 grit.

Once the work is sanded and cleaned of any dust, a coat of 2# shellac can be applied. You can make a 2# cut of shellac by mixing 2 parts of a pre-mixed canned shellac with 1 part denatured alcohol. You can use the shellac straight from the can , but adding alcohol will allow the shellac to penetrate the wood better.

The shellac will be absorbed by any areas of the wood that would have had a tendency to absorb greater quantities of stain.

Applying a stain (minwax red mahogany) to the unconditioned board reveals all the areas of uneven stain absorption. This is what is commonly called blotching. Once this happens it is very hard to correct it without removing the stain or tinting or toning the entire piece.

After sanding the coat of shellac with 320 grit sand paper and cleaning the surface of all dust you are ready to apply the first coat of stain.

Once the first coat of stain is applied to the conditioned side of the board and wiped, the evenness of the stain can easily be seen. The overall color is uniform and no blotches can be seen at all. The other noticeable thing is that the first coat didn't absorb as "deeply" as the single coat on the other side. In this sample I applied two coats of stain.

After the second coat of stain was applied a warm even color had emerged. If you wanted it to be even darker you would need to add as many coats of stain as would be required. So by simply applying a single coat of shellac you go from blotchy to great looking with very little extra effort.

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