Kauri Pine Mantelpiece - Finishing Issues!! Help!!

Hey Guys,

Been on these forums alot recently as I'm currently restoring a 100 yr old Kauri Pine Mantelpiece for our Living Room. I stripped all the different layers of paint off using Paint Stripper, Pressure House, Wire brush, steel wool, sanding, etc. Had to take about 6 layers off.
Once that was done it was looking pretty good, so after reading advice on here, I sanded it thru the grades upto 400 grit. Then applied a thin coat of Ubeaut Sanding Sealer. Next I sanded it lightly with 1200 grit once the sealer was dry (waited about an hr to be sure).
Then came the staining...I used Wattyl Craftsmen Traditional Stain in Teak.
I found it went on a bit darker than I expected, so panicked and probably rubbed it a bit hard with a rag. I initially applied by rag, then rubbed off with dry rag, but changed my technique to brush on and rag off once I got to the more detailed sections.
As you can see in the pics, despite all my preparation, the stain hasn't been as consistent as I had hoped. The detailed bit of the corbels, imo, look pretty ugly, the stain didn't seem to stain evenly here, or deeply. Also at the base, you'll see lighter edges in the corners where timber meet. I tried brushing more stain in there, but ended up just covering the surrounding wood too, making it all a shade darker, but still not getting the lighter bits darker, which was my aim :no:

Thankfully the top came out pretty well, but when your looking at the fireplace, it's the front you'll be looking at, not the top, and I'm not very happy with how that's turned out. Any ideas on how to improve it?

Lastly, I was told if using a water-based Poly sealer to wait atleast 72hrs staining to ensure the stain had properly evaporated from the timber. I plan on using Minwax Water-based Helmsman Spar Urethane in a Clear Satin as I was told it was the best protection from heat, as being water based it allows the timber to expand and contract with heat changes, which I assume would happen alot using on a fireplace mantel. I'm hoping you guys would agree that this is the best way to protect the timber from heat? (Otherwise I can always take the can back to Masters if something more suitable is recommended?)

Hopefully someone can help, as I'm quite annoyed at the end result. I really wanted to do this 100 yr old piece justice, and it appears I've fallen at the final hurdle. :C
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Lately I've been using Old Masters gel stains. Truly superb. General Finishes and Minwax gel products are vastly inferior. I dislike the water based poly varnishes. High solids content makes them difficult to apply smoothly and they hold bubbles. Minwax spar urethane, thinned 50% with mineral spirit and applied with an ox hair or China bristle brush works very well but you must work decisively, no going back to retouch. OM makes a gel-poly, haven't tried it yet but if its as good as their gel stains it will be my standard.

The top being all long grain would take up the stain evenly which is the results you got. The various curves along the side of the piece has a combination of end and long grain.
You were always going to be pushing the ball uphill in getting an even cover of stain for those parts of the piece.
Personally I would not have tried to stain it. I would have just clear finished it after applying a shellac as a based coat. The sanding sealer you used is shellac based but very diluted so more coats would have been better. You would have seen the differences (darkness) when you applied the sealer.
I don't know of an easy way to fix this other than sanding back to bear wood? If it really annoys you then it might be the only option.
For a good coat on a mantel not able to comment.

Thanks for the advice.
Christos - what u say makes sense about the grain. I didn't really take that into account, should have gone heavier with the sanding sealer on the end grains. You live and learn!
Thankfully since putting on a couple of coats of clear spar urethane it's made it look alot better and relaxed me a little! I'll put up some pictures of the final product once finished.

I know this would be super time consuming, but could you go back with a fairly fine (by furniture finishing standards) brush and dab stain on where necessary to achieve the desired color?

Personally, I've never used stain and after reading this I remember why it intimidates me so much!

Best of luck.

Cheers,
Luke

Here's the finished product. Once the stain had fully cured it evened out a bit, and the spar urethane added a bit of amber to it, which helped even out the lighter bits. Came up pretty good for my first attempt I reckon. Next I'll take more time with the end grain sections to try and get fully even stain absorption.
Thanks for the tips!
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Yes,

I agree that it does look good - very good I'd say. With old things/antiques IMHO it is better that they actually look old, not perfect. It is called patina.

David