Stripping and refinishing: The things I have learned (the hard way)!

I have been working on refinishing an old maple wood end table for my grandmother. When we went shopping for stain, she decided on a hickory stain, of which color only was available in gel form. So we bought it and I figured, what real difference will it make? It says it is best used for vertical surfaces such as doors and trim, but otherwise states no differences. Not that it can't be used on any other non vertical surface.

I spent the greater part of my first week completely stripping the old finish off. And then thoroughly sanding it down as much as possible to the bare wood. I had refinished my own book case last year with an ebony stain (liquid) and the process did not seem nearly as tedious and time consuming. But this part will take the longest! Just as a heads up...prepare your patience.

These are the main things I want you to know before you dive into your huge staining project hoping to master it on first try, since on my first try, I crashed and burned miserably!

What you need to know about the stripping process:

1)     Always, always use a stripping gel (if you want to keep your sanity)! This will help to pull off all the hard to get, super absorbed stain that has been sitting on the wood for the past umpteen years. Be generous and apply the stripper thickly! You do not want to let the stripper sit on the wood for as long as they usually say. (For instance, the stripper I use says leave on for 15-30 minutes) this does not work because by the time it's ready to go back and scrape, the stripper and the pulled up stain have both dried up again. Start scraping the old finish off about 3 minutes after applying the stripper. You will start to see the old finish bubble, or wrinkle. This is when you know it is time. Use a plastic stripping tool and scrape hard, pulling as much off as you can with the first application. In any hard to reach or curvy areas, use a synthetic steel wool (usually a plastic block) and scrub the stain off using a similar motion as when you would sand. 

2)     There may be some stubborn spots, and on those, simply put another coat of stripper and repeat this process. If they are small, they can always just be sanded out.

For a nice video, watch this!

What you need to know about the sanding process:

1)     Always sand in the direction of the wood grain. I highly recommend using the 3M brand sanding contour surface sponges, because they are angled on the sides which make it very nice to use when needing to sand in those hard to get to places, they do not lose their shape, they last through even some of the toughest/longest jobs, and they have one for any sanding need you may have! Superfine, fine, medium, medium course, course- all of which tell you exactly what they are good for (between coats, tough coat removal, etc.). They also have items specifically for large area sanding, small area sanding. You want to try to get as much of the original wood grain visible as possible, bare.

2)     I highly recommend NOT using an oscillating power tool with a sanding attachment, even if it has that capability. I tried it, and it definitely did not help the job. These tools tend to sand very inconsistently so they do not leave a smooth surface, and they can even tend to wear down certain areas more than others, leaving visible gouges and scratches in your wood. These will show through in your stain, and make for an extremely unattractive and unfortunately saddening finished product.

What you need to know about stain:

1)     Liquid VS Gel: Liquid stain penetrates the wood best, and doesn't leave a sticky finished feeling like gel stain. Gel stain tends to have a streaky finished look, while liquid is extremely smooth and streak free. Liquid is also much easier to use: can be applied by rubbing it into the wood with a cloth, allowing you to skip the step of removing off excess stain. Gel stains process is much more involved and difficult to master: apply very thickly with a brush, lightly wipe off excess with a clean cloth, brush back over with a clean dry brush to remove any cloth marks or streaks, and to give it a smooth brushed finish. Liquid stain can be sanded over once it has dried, which is a good thing if you notice small imperfections or spots where stain has collected, or pooled.Gel stain cannot be sanded down, so what you leave to dry is what you get. If you don't fix any imperfections while it is still wet, there is no easy way to fix them later.

2)     Always allow the coats to dry for the recommended time. This will prevent the finish from being splotchy, thick, or otherwise defected.

After all of the table was stripped down, I went back over and sanded out any stain spots that I could not get. After the table was sanded and ready for some stain action, I went ahead and put the first coat of gel stain hickory on. I brushed it on thick, let it sit for several minutes, and wiped of the excess. When wiping, use a large fibrous towel, and do not push down hard into the stain. Instead, just let the rag lightly graze over removing only what stain easily comes off. The reason for this is that by pushing down, you will leave areas where no stain is, which defeats the purpose when you want a full even coating.

The first coat looked pretty good when I went back to check on it the next day, since there is a 8-12 hour drying time. However, the stain can does say that you can add another coat if it is left looking uneven or too light for what your goal is. And for me, it just didn't look... right. It was too light, streaky, and uneven. So, I added another coat, and almost instantly after finishing the second coat on the entire table, I knew this was not going to work. The gel stain started to take on a chalky look, and it began to look very thick, paint meets mud, sort of thick. 

I did some research only then, to find out the best way to apply gel stain, thinking that maybe my technique was what ruined it. I watched some youtube videos, and this one showed me the tricks to getting a great finish.And yes, he makes it look WAY too easy. The thing was that I had done almost exactly what he said to! This is when my frustration set in pretty good. I decided to dig deeper into why I may have had this issue, which is when I found an article that talked about the different woods that gel stain works best on. By the way, maple wood is NOT one of them. "Something that could have been brought to my attention yesterday!"(A little tribute to my favorite film, The Wedding Singer)

Anyways, long story slightly less long, I ended up deciding to completely strip it again, buy a different stain (liquid), and vow to never use gel again! No doubt it has it's place, but I think it is extremely messy, hard to work with, the process required is too involved, which when you have many projects to do, overly involving is no good. In conclusion, the table that took me 10 hours the first time, has to be completely redone. So do your research, and make sure that what you're using is going to work for what you are doing! This will save you time, headaches, and frustration.

This is what I highly recommend using. Minwax is a really good stain, they have endless shades/colors, and it's inexpensive!