Quote Originally Posted by Tim K View Post
Some woods are a pain in the ass to stain. Maple and pine (among others) are both famous for being blotchy. They will contain areas that absorb WAY more pigment than the surrounding areas or WAY less. The bitch is that it is impossible to see these areas until you apply stain. Of course, that's always 5 seconds too late. These species can be stained successfully, but it requires some different techniques. One option is to use a wood conditioner. These are products that are designed to control stain absorption and limit blotching. I've never had much success with them.
Found this out the hard way. My wife wanted to get rid of the "golden oak" stair rails and balusters and do iron balusters and a darker stain. After speaking with some neighbors who all got insanely priced bids to have it professionally done, I decided I was dumb enough to try and tackle it myself. Given some difficulties I had in the past with staining, I decided that it would be smart to remove the railing on the wall and use it as my test . . . I'd sand it down and stain it and then I'd know how it would (or should) look when I do the rest. I did not use a wood conditioner--I had tried one on another project and it seemed to really change how the intended stain looked--made it look worse than without the conditioner. So I forged ahead.

There was a little blotchyness and streaking to it . . . but it was minimal and I actually thought it gave the rail a nice rustic look after the coats were done and the poly was all dried. So I decided to forge ahead with the project. Spent an entire day sanding and prepping the rails after removing the balusters. Put on the first coat of gel stain and let it dry . . . there was some of the same characteristics on those rails like the test one I did . . . maybe a little more pronounced in places (apparently the cheapie mass-produced rails also use different wood or different batches for sections). But the newell posts had some VERY dark patches/streaks in different places. Apparently they were pine or hemlock or something like that. CRAP! What do I do now? Re-sand it all and try to use a conditioner? That would also mean completely redoing the test rail and then what if it looked worse??

I decided to just see what happened with the additional gel stain coats. Those did seem to even out the patches a little . . . enough to where I thought it was trending more towards the cool/rustic look vs not good. When my wife got home that night I took her over and asked her what she thought. She said, "WOW--that looks awesome!" Thank God. I don't want to think about what I would have done if she would have gone, "hmmm . . . what did you do???".

Anyway . . . yeah . . . staining can suck. Before and after below. Don't get me started on my wife's love for mustard/yellow walls . . . trying to convince her to go with something more neutral next time around.