Q: When I try to stain a project like a bookcase that has both red oak plywood and solid red oak, the colors of the two parts come out drastically different.
A: There are several steps that will help you deal with this, and you may need just one or many. First, sand both the plywood and the solid wood through the same sanding sequence. It’s tempting not to sand plywood as it is already smooth, but unlike solid wood, veneer is cut with a knife that compresses the surface fibers. The opposite is true of solid wood. Normally you would start sanding solid wood with 80 or 100 grit paper and go up through the grits to 180 or 220. Do the same sequence on the plywood, even though it means going backwards on the coarsest grits, and the woods will behave more similarly when absorbing stain.
That will work on many panels, but some types of plywood have veneers that have been impregnated by the adhesive, and are more resistant to absorbing stain, even when sanded properly. If you are using a pigmented stain, you can restain those areas the second day, wiping a bit less aggressively so as to leave them darker. Otherwise, use a tinted topcoat, a technique that is also used to even up dyes. You can’t use your stain, but you can add compatible dye or a bit of concentrated pigment in a compatible medium, such as artists colors, to the top coat to make a tinted toner. Spray or brush it selectively onto the lighter areas to make them even.
Michael Dresdner
straight talk about wood finishing
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