I am building a small platform for my son in law to raise the bedside lamp to a reading level. The wood is 3/4 inch white oak. The top, 8 inches by 10 inches, has a 1/2 cove with a 1/4 lip on the long side. End grain. I have sanded to 120 grit. I plan on painting the end grain with 50/50 mixture of alcohol and shellac and staining with Minwax. This will be done on a piece of scrap. Alternative way is to use gel stain. Am I one the right track?

Edited May 5, 20179 yr by Ron Pemberton

I always sand end grain to a few grits "finer" than the remainder of the piece. The extra sanding helps keep the end grain from taking up more stain and thus keeping the flat and end grains very close to the same color.

Almost all of the proposed end grain treatments consist of sealing with something, or sanding to a much higher grit. I would try the shellac and see if you get what you want. I was interested to see you refer to the sealer as 50/50 alcohol and shellac, I guess that's premixed shellac and you're just cutting it down a little(?). If that doesn't do it, consider sanding it to 400 grit or so and try the stain, but the shellac may work.

16 minutes ago, lew said:

The extra sanding helps keep the end grain from taking up more stain and thus keeping the flat and end grains very close to the same color.

I've never had that luck Lew, my end grain no matter how fine I sand it, is always considerably darker than the flat grain. Though, I love end grain darkness, so I have never tried to hide it, but I have sanded projects to 800 and abralon to 1200, basically burnishing the wood smooth, and the end grain is always much darker after finishing.

I was also going to suggest not using end grain if hiding it is important. Such as a mitered frame around the platform perimeter or breadboard ends over the end grain.

2 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Almost all of the proposed end grain treatments consist of sealing with something, or sanding to a much higher grit. I would try the shellac and see if you get what you want. I was interested to see you refer to the sealer as 50/50 alcohol and shellac, I guess that's premixed shellac and you're just cutting it down a little(?). If that doesn't do it, consider sanding it to 400 grit or so and try the stain, but the shellac may work.

 

Yes, a thinned version of (pre-mixed) shellac is commonly called a wash-coat. http://www.refinishwizard.com/washcoatsolids.htm

 

Sanding with one or two grits finer is also a  recommended solution.  Sanding more, even with the same grit to get out the cutting/milling roughness is effective. (Flexner - see his photo here  https://books.google.com/books?id=Av5wWDCnhVQC&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=flexner+endgrain&source=bl&ots=HwKBwr5zKO&sig=F_GU6lt47orvzttLvWIjNAA45pM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwit8eXw8NnTAhXo64MKHcyuD9oQ6AEIMTAC#v=onepage&q=flexner endgrain&f=false ) 

 

So, there is some disagreement amongst the actual cause and solutions.

 

I don't mean to bash Minwax, but I've had much better luck with better-quality stains.  I don't have a brand recommendation because I lost my source for commercial stains.

All the previous solutions are good.  What I have done works great!

1. dye the wood the background color you desire.

2. seal with 1 lb cut of shellac (blonde).

3. stain the wood the foreground color you desire.

4. Top coat with poly or lacq or shellac.

 

When I use the dye it uniformly colors the end and long grain the same color.  Then when I seal in the color I stop the stain from absorbing too quickly.  Then the stain sticks in the grain pores.  Then then top coat seals it all up.

Works every time.

 

33 minutes ago, Michael Thuman said:

All the previous solutions are good.  What I have done works great!

1. dye the wood the background color you desire.

2. seal with 1 lb cut of shellac (blonde).

3. stain the wood the foreground color you desire.

4. Top coat with poly or lacq or shellac.

 

When I use the dye it uniformly colors the end and long grain the same color.  Then when I seal in the color I stop the stain from absorbing too quickly.  Then the stain sticks in the grain pores.  Then then top coat seals it all up.

Works every time.

 

 

A bit of understanding helps explain why this works.

- Dyes are dissolved in their solvent/carrier. Think of dyes like sugar in water.  Come back the next day and you still have sugar water.   Bake it in a cookie and you taste the sweetness, but don't really see grains of sugar.  They more or less evenly color the wood fibers as the liquid is absorbed into the wood and penetrates the fibers.  You can also lighten the coloring (somewhat), if you apply a cloth with the solvent and wipe over it.

- Pigments are suspended in carrier.  Think of putting a scoop of clay in water.   You have to stir it a lot to get it off the bottom and come back the next day and it will be back at the bottom of the jar.  The larger particles land in the tiny crevices and pores of the wood.   That's why sealing it with a wash coat or more sanding helps -- there's no place for those large particles to land and hide, so they're wiped off when you wipe off the stain.

 

Pick up a can of wood stain and you don't know if you have a dye stain or a pigment stain (generally).  But open the can and stick a painter's stir stick in the bottom and see if you some up with sludge (clay) but not much color above that.   That's a sign you have pigment.   If there is no sludge at the bottom, but the stick is colored evenly all the way up, you have a dye (sugar).   If you have both sludge and even color, then you have both pigment and dye. Minwax, for example uses dyes, pigments, and both -- but it's up to you to find out which one you have.

Keith thanks for the explanation.  Here is a little more.

I always bye my dye from trans-tint in powder form so that I am sure it is a dye. 

Then put it in r/o water, distilled water, or alcohol as the solvent to carry it to the wood.  Than after sealing I turn to a pigment stain.  if it has dye it just enhances my background color.