refinishing interior door, oversanded?

ok i have never done any work with wood and am having difficulty. I am restaining a door to a darker color. i chose to strip it by power sanding through the finish. when i applied the stain it absorbed unevenly and looked horrible. so i applied another two coats, since i didn't mind it being really dark, as long as it was even. it was close to looking good and i put on one more coat for good measure. now there's glossy dark spots all over where it looks like the stain hasn't dried. but it has. if i rub it with my finger it then looks whiteish. the whole thing is still quite uneven. do i have to re-sand, and do a better job of it? should i just paint the damn thing? the frame is quite dark, and not much grain is visible, so perhaps a painted door wouldn't look out of place.

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Reply to
jpenns
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What kind of wood is it

Reply to
ransley

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I have no idea. It's not a solid door, that's all I can tell.

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Reply to
jpenns

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Hmmm, If it's not solid, paint it. So it's a Masonite door that was stained? That's odd!

Reply to
evodawg

"jpenns" wrote

Grin, it can be a learning experience.

Hehehe. The first time I refinished a wood table, I did that too.

Painting may be an option but you almost certainly will need to re-sand it first.

If you decide to try a second try at staining, use a damp sponge to apply the stain. If you want to try to fix it faster before re-sanding and 'antiquing' suits the needs, look for a contrasting color that matches your color scheme and apply that over existing stain and see what happens.

Let me flesh that out as I did fair amount of it over time on various things.

I'd apply a base stain coat, lets take a dark cherry as an example. I'd deliberately let it be a bit uneven, even skipping a bit here and there. I'd then apply (after the first was dry) a contrasting coat of 'stain' in some other color, say a darkish 'dutch blue' or a darkish 'evergreen' lightly over that. (Hint, cheap cellulose sponges from your local dollar store work *better* for this one as you do NOT want a totally even coat!). Let dry. Look at it a little and you may want to touch up with the first stain allowing the second one to just 'peek though' a bit.

In your case, you are done with the first stain and ready for the second color. Unless you have something like 'right side is darker than left side' (re-sand and start over) patches where some parts are a bit different are what you *want* to have.

Since I can't see the door from here, I can't tell if this fits but it might.

Final tips. When I did this, I always let each stage cure 2 weeks before next stage. Final stage was to add top sealant and that would depend on the item as to 'shellac' etc. Basically I mean a top clear coat.

Reply to
cshenk

The shiny spots are probably just loaded with stain, to the extend it dried on the surface like varnish. Simplest fix, IMO, would be to strip the whole thing and apply one coat of wipe-on stain. Don't know what the whitish stuff would be. Short of stripping it, try fine sanding of the glossy dark spots until the gloss goes away. Quick fine sanding of the whole door. Wipe it down with mineral spririts - when it is wet it will give a good idea of how it looks with clear finish.

Power sanding is a rough way to remove finish - to easy to get dips and gouges. The shiny stuff could also be leftover varnish.

Reply to
norminn

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Most commonly mahogany.

Reply to
norminn

jpenns had written this in response to

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: thanks for all the tips. I'm not sure if it's masonite, does that refer to any door that isn't solid all the way through? This door doesn't have any panels or anything, it's just not solid wood.

Why would painting require a re-sanding? My colour scheme is yellow, do stains like that exist?

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Reply to
jpenns

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You sand because paint won't stick to a smooth surface.

How about just starting over.

Remove all the existing junk with a stripping chemical. Lightly sand and re-stain following the stain manufacturer's instructions.

Reply to
HeyBub

The stain was absorbed unevenly because the wood wasn't evenly sanded.

The glossy spots are because there is too much stain there; you should have wiped off excess...you are staining, not painting. Wiping the whole thing down with paint thinner may even it out.

dadiOH

Reply to
dadiOH

Without knowing wood type you cant do a good job, soft woods and Birch need Pre Stain Sealers to make stains even looking. Hollow, Veneer, type of wood and amount of damage determine if its even worth doing. Factory spray stain-finishes are near impossible to match by hand. I will guess its a soft wood and say chemicaly strip and lightlly sand it, get Bix Pre Stain and try again with one coat. Unless you know staining you will ruin your first coat if the second coat is put on before first coat has cured out completely for days. Entry doors are not what you want to learn on. If any sun will hit it, you need Marine rated UV finishes. Not HD stuff. The easy part was the sanding, now

95% of the hard work begins, making it finished right so you are happy when its finished and it lasts.
Reply to
ransley

Jpenns, there's a silly thread no on how I hit 'delete' on this thread by accident when clearing out spam.

Mark's note is a good one but if you sent a question to me, I will have to ask you to send it again. Sorry. I'm not a blonde but I can simulate one well at times!

Reply to
cshenk

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