After reading this blog from John Petersik on using Minwax Polyshades to darken his kitchen, I knew that unless I gave it a try, I would be forever wondering if maybe all the hype over gel stain has taken me down a dark road, and that a another stain might have been easier all along. I HATE what-ifs! So tonight I hit the local Lowe's and picked up a can of Minwax Polyshades stain in Honey Satin, a color I have never tried before. I would have bought the same color John used, Tudor, but they didn't have it. However, the Honey is a "New" color and it looks really similar, so I am wondering if it is the same with a new name. Just to be sure, I also ordered Tudor color on Amazon. And I must say, am the proud owner of quite the little stain collection.
I can't say that I wasn't nervous about the Polyshades, for two reasons. First, several of the reviews on this product on Amazon are really bad. No, I mean really, really bad, as in seven circles of Hell bad. The other reason was that I was about to stain the very last corner of scrap wood that I had. What if it didn't work? All the reviews were so bad, maybe I shouldn't, but the blog made it look so easy. And he even made a video...
Then guess what? My hubby, who had been trying to ignore my current session of indecision finally noticed that I wasn't actually staining and after a quick debriefing as to the current situation, went to the garage and returned with guess what...another scrap cabinet door!!! And that is exactly why Istill love him, for his big piece of wood! And I told him so. ;-)
With my new scrap wood all taped into sections I eagerly opened the polyshades. I mixed the color, stirred, not shaken, and then proceeded to dip in my cheap one dollar brush and apply the Polyshades to one lightly sanded corner of the door. It went on surprisingly easy. However, I noticed immediately that brush strokes were going to be a problem. So I grabbed one of the clean staining socks and quickly rubbed it off.
Back online, I found a reviewer who said he actually applied the Polyshades using the sock method that others have used with gel stain. Could that be possible???? Okay, why not. I opened the stain back up and dipped in one corner of a staining sock. By now I am not even protecting my fingers anymore. I quickly smeared the stain around and then used the brush and sock in combination to get the sticky stain out of the corners of the detailing and then to smear it around as thin as possible. Guess what? It worked!
The polyshades went on smooth and easy with that sock, there were no brush lines, and the color was even, super light, but even. But I still wasn't going to celebrate yet. I was no blushing bride this time, I had seen what a second coat could do. So I waited a whole 24 hours, rather than the eight hours suggested on the can, then lightly sanded with steel wool, and went for the second coat. Wait for it...the second coat went on as smooth and as easily as the first! The sock method totally works with Polyshades.
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| In this picture, I have put two coats on the upper left corner and one coat on the upper right corner, the bottom two parts are untouched. As you can see, the tinting is very light. |
Since the color was still so light, I decided to wait another 24 hours and go for a third coat, and then 24 hours later a fourth coat. I did use steel wool between the first and second, and second and third coats, but didn't between the third and fourth.
Here is the door after four coats:
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| As you can see, the color is slowly building to a warm brown, but without the streaks and darker parts I was getting with the gel stain. Some people may be able to get this much color from just one or two coats, but I have been applying super thin coats using a sock. I am finding that they dry fine in 24 hours and don't pull up previous color in the way that the gel stain did. |
In looking at the color I noticed something else, I don't know if it is showing up for you, but the Polyshades Honey color was actually cutting down the orange/red color in the doors, the very thing I was hating from the beginning. Honestly, when I had bought the Polyshades, I had expected to hate it. I only bought it so I could cross it off my list of things I had tried, but now that I could see its potential, I went back online and researched it.
It turns out that Polyshades is also Polyurethane (duh!), but made out of the same stuff as the gel stain, only a little more sticky and runny. But unlike gel stain, Polyshades doesn't go down well on raw wood, which is probably why so many people get terrible results from it. Polyshades is tint suspended in polyurethane and made specifically to go over preexisting polyfinishes or paint. By Minwax's own website, they do not recommend Polyshades to go over lacquer, which is another reason some people may have gotten bad results. I personally am falling in love with the stuff.
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