Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyM  Subscribed...I have an upright done in orange poly I'd like to darken as well. |
Oh my God--that must really be intimidating to look at.
I haven't heard back from the OP about this yet and he was last I heard, off to pick up some wipe on poly to clear coat over the stain.
Anyhow, this is basically the technique for glazing--
Lightly sand the existing finish to perfection. I'd go about 400 grit. Make sure there are no shiny spots left. Use a fine abrasive pad after the sandpaper. Wash the bass down with paint thinner or naptha and get it really clean.
Apply a very thin coat of an oil based gelled wood stain in a darker colour, keeping in mind that one colour over another will combine to produce a third colour, and the result may not be what you want. That's why it's important to practice first. In the OP's case he bought some walnut gelled stain, which over his rather orangish existing colour should result in a warmish brown result assuming the stain isn't put on too thick.
Wipe off all but a thin layer of the gelled stain before it gets a chance to set up hard. This depends on temperature and the stain. It sometimes helps to dampen the wipening cloth with a thinner (in this case, paint thinner) a bit to get the right amount off. If you take off too much-apply more and do it again. If you really screw up, wipe off everything with thinner and do it again.
You should end up with a darker colour with much of the original wood figuration showing through. Too much stain and you won't see any and you might as well have painted over it. Too little and not enough change.
When the stain is completely dry-I'd give it 3 days in a warm place to be safe, start applying multiple thin coats of the clear coat by hand with a cloth, sanding and using the abrasive pad between coats to keep the surface very smooth, before applying the next coats. It's important to be careful to not cut through the clear into the stain so watch it on rounded edges particularly. Work in a dust free space so each coat dries fast before anything contaminates the surface. Keep temperature above 72 F.
Usually about 6 coats will give it the right depth. The result will be a very high gloss with a new colour, wood grain still showing through enough to recognize what it is and a deeper look to the whole thing.
Of course, all sorts of things can go wrong. But this is one of the easiest techniques to achieve that result by hand without spray equipment and ventilation to use it.
By the way, some high end paint stores sell a special glazing stain which looks similar to regular oil based gelled stain but is a better consistency to work with. If you can find this it's better. I doctor gelled stain with a small amount of varnish to get it to wipe better and add a drop of Japan dryer to get itt to set up faster.
It's really important to practice ahead of time.
But if you screw it all up, you can just sand everything off to bare wood and do it from the ground up, which is what we're trying to avoid, but sometimes is the best way.
