Q: I understand that using a pretreatment while staining maple and other woods prone to blotch will reduce the blotchiness, but you end up with a lighter colour. How do you reduce the blotchiness and keep the same colour that you started with?
A: There are two ways; either start with a darker color in anticipation of it being diminished, or stain twice. The second way is probably easiest. Once the stain dries, usually overnight, you can stain a second time either with the same stain or with a darker stain and it will add color, though in a slightly different way and with less intensity than staining on untreated wood. Still, you can usually get the color you want this way. A third option is to add small amounts of compatible pure colorant to your first coats of finish, thus creating a material called toner. Add as many coats of toner as you need to the color you want.
Michael Dresdner
straight talk about wood finishing
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