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03-19-2019, 11:18 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-19-2019, 11:19 AM by Rob Young.)
Rub down with a solvent for the binder in the stain. Again, use a test piece stained darker, then try to lighten it. I doubt you can get much if any of the pigment up out of the deep pores of the ash.
Mineral spirits would be my first choice of solvent. Flood on, give it a moment then wipe off. Might be a tad bit streaky but persistence and some post-wipe sanding might do the trick.
I've never gotten more than just some general "lightening" this way without sanding. Hope that's all you need.
edit to add, I think the couple of times I did this was on poplar and with a plain old wiping stain, not a get stain.
Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things. -- G. Carlin
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Rob, thank you. I will try what you suggest and this time use a practice piece to see if it works.
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After stripping or sanding the piece is there anything I should do before restaining it?
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John, you are correct. I need to find out why the one piece accepted stain differently. I think I will sand a practice piece too a finer degree. Instead of sanding to 180 grit I will sand to 220 or higher. I will then apply stain hoping the piece will absorb less stain. This will be done on practice pieces until I get a result I can live with.
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The raw ash pieces all had the same color. The pieces looked like they were cut from the same log. That is why I was surprised by the way the stain was absorbed on just one particular piece.