I'm staining unfinished oak furniture and getting light-colored ripples (against the grain). Why is that?

Question

We have just bough a boatload of unfinished oak furniture. The furniture store I bought it from recommended sanding with 220 sandpaper, applying 2 coats of gel stain, lightly sanding with 400 sandpaper and then applying a 3rd coat of stain. I have done all that exactly as recommended, and added a 4th coat to desktop surfaces (lightly sanding after the 3rd coat).

There seems to be almost ripples or lines where the stain didn't take the same and looks like light-colored waves across the wood. The ripples are against the grain. All sanding, staining and wiping off of stain was done with the grain. I used the kind of manual sanding tool where you hold the sandpaper in place with clamps. My husband thinks it is a sanding problem and that I should be using a power sander.

Has anyone seen this before? If it is a sanding problem, would using a sanding block help? (I hate power tools!)

Thanks!

Answer 1

The grain in the wood is of different hardnesses (normal) so the stain absorbs into the wood in different degrees. Thats what you are going for with a stain...to show the wood grain. If you don't want the wood grain to show..paint instead.

Answer 2

It's quarter sawn oak.   Those "marks" are part of the grain pattern.     Did you put sealer on the wood before staining?  Sealer helps even out the stain so it is even throughout the piece.

- 31 years as a shop teacher

Answer 3

this condition is a natural condition of oak, some wood's

depending on the density of the wood.

  the light 'ripples' are the hard part of the oak, and will not

absorb the stain like the soft areas

  if you have wooden floors you will see what i mean, it's just the character of certain wood's.

it may have helped had you been told to give it a coat of clear wood sealer first, then put on the stain.

Answer 4

you are not having an application problem. those 'streaks' are the rays in oak, especially quartersawn and rift sawn oak.

it is part of the character of higher quality oak. those areas will not take stain as readily as the rest of the wood. a pre-stain conditioner may help, but is really not recommended.

Continue with the way you are going, and enjoy the beauty of the oak.

Hope that helps.

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JKlmno: look at the photo in this link

http://www.gotodaylight.com/quartersawn_...

if those are the streaks you are talking about, those are the 'medullary rays' in the grain. they are the pathways for nutrients in\out of the center of the tree; again a characteristic

of q-sawn wood and should be considered a good thing.

if that's not what you mean, then a picture would help.