spots after staining

After staining pine shelving I ended up with dark spots on the wood. I had sanded the wood with 150 grit, applied wood conditioner (for oil stain) and applied the stain with a stain brush. There was no evidence of oil or water on the wood. The spots almost look like mold spots. Help!

 

Unfortunately the pine boards we get these days don't hold a stick to what we used to get. The areas you're talking about almost seem (on boards I've seen.) spongy 0r "dry rotted". The area soaks stain in like a thirsty dog!!

If this is what your area is like, about the only thing you can do is to apply a glaze to even the color up. Now, glaze is a heavily pigmented solution. It's available for use with oil based products and latex based products.Using the glaze reminds me of the old antiquing kits we used back in the 60's.

You add a base color, which is normally lighter than the surrounding wood, then come back over it, when dry, with a darker glaze to fake the look of the grain of the wood and blend the entire area.After the area is dried then finish the entire board. If more color is needed, it can be applied between coats.

Another way to blend areas is to use artist oil colors. These come in acrylic and oil, and are in a tube like toothpaste so when finished you can recap it and save it for another time. Using a combinationof the primary colors, you can virtually make any color.Then follow the same procedure as above. Oh, stay away from the acrylic.It's a real pain to use!!

 

Welcome to the diy forums!

Can you provide pics of the boards?

Did you wipe off the excess stain after brushing it on?

 

Sorry..I have not gotten to the digital pic stage yet. Yes, I wiped off the excess. I sanded one down today and the black spots came off, so I guess I'll try re staining it and see if the spots reappear.

 

If you apply a wood conditioner or natural color stain, immediately wipe off the excess, then follow up with a compatable stain, it will reduce the amount of blotching that you get with soft woods like pine. I agree with clockdaddy about the quality of today's pine. (lowe's has nice 1x6 douglas fir which stains up good, almost like hemlock!)

Wood conditioner will make your stain color a little lighter than you might anticipate, so experiment on some scraps first.

 

might I add a word of caution. If you leave the glaze too heavy, it may interfere with the adhesion of the finish.

 

You're absolutely right bclacquer!.

Using the heavily pigmented glaze helps to avoid using too much solution because the color will be completely opaqued if it is used too heavily. It would do just as good to paint the piece.
The method I described is a process that takes time and patience.
anytime you have to layer on colors to achieve an effect it is essential to allow the previous coat to dry thoroughly. If ya don't, then ya get what bclacquer is warning about...layers that will separate. If the glaze is used as minimally as possible and allowed to dry completely between coats, you shouldn't have that problem.