Staining Question

[Roly]

Hi everyone,
I'm new to the board and rather new to woodwork and I have a stain question. I built my wife a blanket chest and used Minwax Gunstock stain on it and its a bit too red for my liking. I just stained it last night and have not applied the urethane and wondered if I could get some other color stain to kink of knock the red down and add a bit of brown tone to it? Any suggestions for this newbie?

  Now that it is dry try wiping the thinner on it to see the color change when wet.  It may tone down the red.   Normally adding a little green on it will make it go brown.t    BUT try on scrap as was said. 
 With something like transtint you can mix it with thinner so you can sneak up on the color.      Make a sample board so you can play around with various methods without ruining the project.  Roly

[Larry Neu]

Thank you Everyone!! I really appreciate the responses and the help...I plan on learning a lot!!

What I did was a stain over. I purchased a few cans of Minwax, Jacobean and Dark Walnut since they have no red in them. I tested on a couple pieces of scrap I had since I used a combination of woods in the project. the sanding and chemical removal was not an option due to the amount of fine trim I used on the chest so I took a chance on the amount of absorption I had left in the wood after two coats of the original gunstock stain. I was happy with the results of the top coat of Jacobean. I mellowed out the red and added the brown I wanted. Still not a perfect match to the bed color but really close for my first bigger joinery project!! After I get the urethane sprayed on ( I plan on 4-5 coats) I'll post a pic.
Again, thanks a lot guys!! I'm learning!! 

Larry

[giradman]

THUMBS UP!  Larry - good luck w/ the rest of the project - looking forward to seeing a pic - Dave

[Willyou]

Great! Glad you found the right combination. You didn't mention if you put any clear finish on your samples. Keep in mind that the clear over the stain will change it's appearance somewhat You might want to test it.

I look forward to seeing the finished product.

[bhh]

The way to neutralize red is to add green (color theory 101).   In the wood finisher's arsenal, green is raw umber.   Unfortunately, few finish suppliers will label a can of stain "raw umber" so you have to look around.  They are likely to have some "designer name" like Sage or Ranch Oak.

[Rob Young]

The way to neutralize red is to add green (color theory 101).   In the wood finisher's arsenal, green is raw umber.   Unfortunately, few finish suppliers will label a can of stain "raw umber" so you have to look around.  They are likely to have some "designer name" like Sage or Ranch Oak.

I got one of those color wheels through Amazon and it has been very helpful.  Not very expensive either.

[Kansas City Fireslayer]

I wouldn’t strip it, sand it, nor dilute it with thinner. I would either tone shellac with Transtint dye or consider adding an oil based gel stain over the top of your stain. My first choice would be to tint shellac. A very easy problem to fix with doing so but you will need to spray for optimal results. Even a cheap HF cup gun on a small to medium sized compressor would get you through it. Seal coat shellac sprays very easy straight from the can.