sand after stain?

[forunna]

Hi people, jsut a quicky
Im using cabots water based stain and then cabots water based varnish.
Do I sand after the stain or just go straight on with the stain after drying?
thanks

craig

[Christos]

I am going to digress a little bit.

If you put on a water based stain then a water based varnish I would expect that the two water based finishes will interact with each other and the water based stain will seep through the water based varnish.

Would be better to use water based stain then oil based varnish or vise versa.

Do a test piece to ensure that is what you are after.

As to sanding how much of the stain do you want showing in the end result.

[forunna]

thanks for replying christos, the tins say to use each other so I asume they are designed that way.

The colour could handle a little bit of lightening after the stain. Will light sanding do that then?

its a cheap old pine table top I am tidying up for my daughters to move into their first rental joint. The missus said it has to match the flooring.

Ive never used stain before, I jumped in and stained it then thought I didnt know if I should sand before the varnish.

[Christos]

Then do a very light sand to knock off any raised grains with at least 240grit or above personally I would start at 400grit. Not knowing what the colour of the floor looks like can not suggest much just as general as possible.

By sanding the stain this should give a nicer finish and a little easier to apply the varnish. If you are going to sand between coats for the varnish, personally again higher grit 400.

Does not matter what the wood as it is something from you to your daughter.

Ah ha no pressure there.

[forunna]

Thanks for that.
table done, now to do the more fiddly chairs to match.