Practice Attempt #1

So my gel stain arrived last week, a can of General Finishes Walnut and another can of Java, along with the wipe on poly everyone suggests.  I have a plan.  I figure I will start with an upstairs bathroom, then another, then my master bath, and then slowly work my way from the linen cupboard to the banister to the kitchen.  By then I should be a master gel stainer and my kitchen should come out perfect, right?  Good plan.  But before I touch a single door, I know I should practice on something else and figure out which color I like best, walnut or java or some blend of both. Fortunately, I picked up a few spare cupboards from a garage sale.

Here is what happened...

Practice Attempt #1:
I decided to try the wipe on, wipe off Karate Kid sock method used by other bloggers with the walnut gelstain.

I sanded one drawer, not too much, just to rough it up as I had read on other's blogs.  Then I liberally applied the stain, rubbing it all around the edges.  It was fun, like finger painting.  I wasn't sure how long to let it sit, but I figured about a minute...then I turned the sock and wiped away the excess, trying to keep the remaining color even. I was really pleased.   Below you can see the drawer front with one coat, as compared to the rest of the kitchen.  It's not much darker, but it is a little warmer, and the color is nice and even, and the original grain shows through.   I thought, "Wow!  It might just be as easy as they say."

 

The next day, I came back to apply a second coat.  This time I must have wiped too many times across the middle, because I noticed that the color was only darkening around the edges, but the middle of the drawer front hadn't really changed, almost like I was picking up the color rather than putting down a new layer.  The more I tried to fix it, the more color I seemed to be taking off.  Frustrated, I decided to stop, and let it rest longer.

Then, after two days, and with great care I smeared around and wiped away a third coat.  I didn't let the stain sit very long this time before wiping, out of fear that the new coat would somehow soften the previous layers.  The result this time was better. A deeper color and more even  Here is the drawer front after the third coat, next to the original color.  This time, I could see much more contrast.  I was feeling hopeful again.

But I still wondered what would happen with a forth coat.  Would the color get deeper?  Would it go on evenly?  All the blogs out there indicated that it would so I waited two more days and went for a fourth coat.  Nada, nothing, same color as above! Either I was wiping color off again, or I had maxed out the color possibility of the stain.

Still wanting a darker color, my next attempt was to try mixing a little java stain into the walnut stain.  The next day, I carefully measured one tablespoon of java and three table spoons of walnut into a tupperware and mixed with a spoon for at least five minutes.  Then I smeared this onto my same drawer front.  I figured that if I liked the result, I could try this same mix again with a virgin piece.  Below is the result.  It is hard to see in the picture, but there was a more reddish tone to the wood that I wasn't digging.

*Picture to come*