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Can you mix wood stain with Danish Oil?

A

Andy Kev.

Nordic Pine
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I thought I'd ask this to see if somebody has already done it and thus save myself a lot of experimenting.

I'm making a simple stand out of pine for a friend. She wants it staining a bit darker (an aesthetic crime IMHO), so I bought some stain. The idea is to stain and then apply Danish Oil. It occurs to me that if stain happily mixes with DO, then I can save myself a bit of time and guarantee even staining. Has anyone any experience of this?
 
Personally I would stain first then apply Danish oil. You can mix them, as long as you are using an oil based stain or compatible pigment. People usually don't - why risk compatibility issues or blotchiness? Staining is very quick. Oil needs to soak into the wood and you don't want to inhibit that.
 
AJB Temple said:
Personally I would stain first then apply Danish oil. You can mix them, as long as you are using an oil based stain or compatible pigment. People usually don't - why risk compatibility issues or blotchiness? Staining is very quick. Oil needs to soak into the wood and you don't want to inhibit that.
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I have used both methods successfully on Beech, Mahogany and Pine, A's correct in that the stain also needs to be oil based.
No real difference in the finish.
 
Phil said:
I have used both methods successfully on Beech, Mahogany and Pine, A's correct in that the stain also needs to be oil based.
No real difference in the finish.
Click to expand...

I know that ideally products should be of the same base or 'thinning agent' for mixing I have successfully mixed Spirit Based Stains (Spirit/Meths/Cellulose thinners) with Finishing Oils (Turps/White Spirit thinners)

So if you only have Spirit based stains to hand I should try a test piece.
 
Undoubtedly you could make this work (ie stick to the wood, and then dry) so long as both the stain and the finish were soluble in the same thinner. That's the easy bit. The difficult thing, I think, would be controlling the colour. As soon as you mix it in with the finish you are thinning it down, obviously, yet it is designed to apply neat. Normally you get the colour you want by wiping the stain off earlier, or later. Then you let it go dry and see if you need to apply any more. Those options will all be removed if you apply it with a finish, so my suspicion is that you will end up with a paler colour than you would if you applied it separately from the finish, and that what you get at the first coat it what you are stuck with. For the sake of a few hours I really can't see what is to be gained.
 
Good points made.

My experience with Pine - it can be blotchy very easily, especially spirit based. Mixing the stain with the oil has seemed to 'smooth' it out.
 
Phil said:
Good points made.

My experience with Pine - it can be blotchy very easily, especially spirit based. Mixing the stain with the oil has seemed to 'smooth' it out.
Click to expand...
Precisely why I mix stains with oils and other 'Finishes' with some turnings because of the changing grain direction that makes it very difficult to get even light tints.
 
Thank you all very much for the replies.

The stain is spirit based, so I will definitely have to do a test piece to see if it works.

Phil's got me a bit worried with his points about blotchiness, which is yet another reason for testing. If it turns out blotchy then I shall try to find some oil-based stain.

Mike's point about stain being intended for neat application hadn't even occurred to me. That said "darker" is a relative term. Maybe a 50:50 mix would produce a dark enough result.
 
I have had better success using water stains on pine.
Steel wool in vinegar can give a light stain, even soaked tea bags and added instant cheap coffee.
Requires a bit more sanding.
Final finish would be BLO or Mike-Mix.

When we got married 49 years ago there was not much cash for furniture.
Made a coffee table from some scrap construction pine, took a blow lamp to it and then a wire bush.
Final finish was a poly-urethane.
It held up well with many a fondu dinner and 2 kids.
 
Have a look here where I stained Pine using a gel stain.

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