wood working guys; cypress staining question

what kind of wood?
Woods like cherry, pine and birch can become blotchy when stained, unless you use a sealer before staining.

it is cypress. and I did not sand all the way through the varnish that is on it now (see the cabinet door behind the stained one). I thought about the sealer, so I will have to seal everything before re staining?

Looks much better than the one behind it. Looks natural.

Wouldn't you start with a conditioner?

When your restaining wood you need to take it down to bare wood. That is from putting stain on varnish.

Those cabinets doors look to be glazed, if so..... good luck getting it off.


If it is just a coat of poly use a heat gun and a scraper and it will peel right off. Sand down to the bare wood with finishing with a 220 grit. Apply a pre-stain conditioner, apply stain, apply polyurethane or shellac

my cypress bench thread

took me about 20 hours to sand all the polyurethane off this piece of cypress.

didn't stain just used some oils to brighten

Agree with salmon, the problem is making the rest of them look like that as well.

If you put a coat of shellac down first it helps with uniform stain

Waterlox then shellac gives a good finish. If you want dark just use dark shellac and you can apply coats until you get to the shade your looking for.