staining shaped hoop pine - bruising appears

Hi this is my first post.
I am a complete amateur working in a very limited space - my carport.
I am currently making a 3 panel folding screen from hoop pine ( Araucaria cunninghamii). This light coloured timber needs to look more like Aust cedar to get the effect I would like.
The problem I have is that any stain I use results in a very patchy appearance.
I have sanded down to 1000 grit - then stained with both spirit or turps dyes only to have every scratch I thought had been sanded out reapear. I sanded out all those scratches and re-stained only to have the problem again. It seems like every ding the timber has ever had is remembered. The curves have exposed more end grain and also appear darker.
So I sanded back and sealed the timber with a 50/50 turps/estapol mix. Then tried stain-varnish products. No matter how I apply them I get a very uneven finish. Also working in the open air dust is a major problem. Most of these experiments have benn carried on on only one panel or off cuts. Without a spray booth I may not be able to achieve my goal. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.

Hi Alwyn,

When staining timber, I've had great success with this method.

Sand the project to 400 grit all over, any exposed end grain areas get sanded to 800 grit.
Clean all dust away thoroughly
Apply two light coats of shellac (edit - I prefer to use White Shellac or dewaxed shellac)
When dry, lightly cut back, clean all dust away
Apply the stain as per the manufacturer's instructions
Apply the finish, as per the manufacturer's instructions.


The use of the shellac helps to even out the take up of the stain by the timber.

Good luck!

cheers
Wendy

Thanks Wendy,
Can I put stain in the shellac once the piece is sealed and just keep going with coloured shellac? This might give me the control I am used to - just keep on adding coats until the colour is OK?

I think it depends on the stain and the shellac as to whether they are compatible.

First and foremost, I believe you would be very wise to run a few trials on some scrap pieces before going near your screens with stain/finish again.

Personally, I prefer not to mix shellac and stain. Other products are able to be combined, but I'm not familiar with them.

cheers
Wendy

Firstly, I love your screen so far, great shape:2tsup: If all else fails there are finishes that have tints in them already, friend put a clear varnish/polyeurathane tinted red colour on some cypress and it looks quite good, although she doesnt remember what it was called. I think if you sand to too fine a grit you can end up burnishing the wood and it can create patches that arent as absorbant.

Donna

Thanks Donna,<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
I did test the initial stain on an offcut but that offcut was perfect and the initial stain seemed ok. But on the screen it was disastrous. I have sanded back but the stain is very deep in places and I can never really sand it all out. And I still have some places that will not take stain. I should have taken Wendy’s advice and used white shellac to seal but I only had orange flakes and they basically had a similar effect. So now I am going to try many coats of the stain and varnish that I have purchased. This stuff doesn’t seem to want to go on evenly either but should eventually provide a solid colour. If that doesn’t work then I think I will take your suggestion and go for a red lacquer effect.

Alwyn