Advice or opinion

[rookieron]

About to stain pine desk. Should I use a sealer first or just apply stain? Going to use a water based stain.

[JR1]

If it's a gel stain you will need to practice on scrap, the stain becomes much darker the longer it's left on. You will want to seal the stain with shellac if you are going to wipe or brush on a waterborne topcoat. If you spray you might get buy without it. Test to see.

[jteneyck]

Oh, do some separate test specimens first, without question. Pine is notorious for blotching. I don't use pine much at all, but I use other woods that blotch badly, like maple. The best way I've found to deal with the blotching is to spray dye or toner to get the color I want. Using a stain is just asking for trouble. The only time I use stain with it is as a glaze (gel stain) over a sealer. That goes on without blotching because you are working with a sealed surface. So, a very workable system is spray applied dye, sealer, wiped on gel stain, top coats.

John

[MsNomer]

Don't use a stain that is darker than the darker hard grain in the pine. Otherwise, you will get the reverse grain pattern that gives pine it's bad rep. You may not see the effect on a small sample.

I have had very good luck with Antique Cherry, particularly if I precondition.