Picking a Stain
i finally got round to stipping the old paint off the banister and spindles. Now I am not sure how to approach the finish. The handrails are walnut, the spindles (salvaged) are two types cedar and walnut and the stairs (New) are red oak. Do I have to Poly the walnut handrails? I don’t want…
i finally got round to stipping the old paint off the banister and spindles. Now I am not sure how to approach the finish. The handrails are walnut, the spindles (salvaged) are two types cedar and walnut and the stairs (New) are red oak.
Do I have to Poly the walnut handrails? I don’t want them to look shiny just knd of glossy. And I was thinking of just sealing the read oak stairs but I may need to stain them to better match the spindles. Any suggestions???
Thanks everyone. I will try out the Oil on a portion and see how it looks.
southslope I was just looking at your site. My problem is that I tung oiled my outside doors (mahogany) and I don’t like the finished look. They doors have been up many years and I never stained them just used tung oil and now they don’t appear as attractive as when new. What a unique idea of adding the stain to the tung oil. How much stain should I used and will it work after my having already put 3 coats of tung oil on the doors.What type of stain should I use.
Many thanks in advance.
I would recommend tung oil, specifically Sutherland Welles tung oil (available at Mazzone Hardware on Court Street). With tung oil you will be able add the stain to the oil itself rather than to the bare wood and darken the wood with subsequent coats of the oil. Tung oil hardens from within the wood and has a nice touch unlike poly which is plastic.
Oil finishes do look better than any poly. If you did poly, although I like high gloss on the rail, you should use satin finish.
Experiment a lot on the different surfaces to get what you really like. You can always sand it off. Try a deeper mahogany on the rail.
“Do I have to Poly the walnut handrails?”
Not necessarily. We stripped the oak (or possibly ash) handrail from our garden to parlor floor and finished it with Minwax Antique Oil Finish. That was over 30 years ago and it still looks great.