Staining The Wood
When applying any type of coating whether it is stain or paint you always want to work in a direction that will cause less problems.
You want to apply the coatings in a way that will reduce dripping and allow you to coat all the side without going over areas you already worked on.
This is really important when working with stains because they are a very liquid product that will drip from your brush and will splatter on adjacent areas as you work. You can almost depend on splatters and drips no matter how careful you are.
Since the bottom and back of the bench will not be seen we will stain those areas first. Turn the bench over and prop it up if needed so you can apply stain to the flat areas of the back an bottom. You can work on the areas between the slats slightly but try not to coat them completely because stain will run onto the top side.
After you have one coating of stain on the back and bottom turn the bench back over and begin working on the areas that everyone will see. You only need to apply one coat of stain in these areas if it is a close enough match in color.
Because we will be painting the cast iron parts later after our urethane is dry don’t worry too much if you get a little stain on them.
Work from the top down and then from the back of the seat area forward and apply an even amount of stain.
As you can see in the picture you want to work on the sides between the slats before you coat the flat top areas.
Once you have coated the entire bench look for any drips or splatters or dust and paint brush hairs that you can remove before things dry. Give the stain about 4 hrs before you inspect it again and look for any areas you want to touch-up.
We will apply a second coat of stain to grain the wood or cause a different grain pattern with stain. Our wood is a fine grain Oak but the stain we are applying is Mahogany / Walnut. To approximate the feeling of mahogany we use the tip of the brush to paint long thin lines on the wood simulating Mahogany. Here we are actually hiding some of the Natural Oak Grain to provide a different appearance without completely covering the wood as a solid paint would.
Some people will suggest that once the stain has dried that you hit it with a fine 00 grade steel wool to make it smooth and take down any fibers. This is important in some woods and some projects but can be left out in our project. Using steel wool on light woods like birch may actually cause stains.