Hey guys
I am bumping this thread because I need some help and/or advice.
I have an alder guitar body coming shortly which I want to stain translucent green. I tried to find some alder scrap around here somewhere but I guess I didn't look hard enough, I couldn't find any. So, I just went to Home Depot and picked up some knotty pine, as I read online that it stains similar to alder, other than being a slightly lighter colored wood.
Fast forward to today, the pictures below are really the best I have been able to get it. I have done the following:
- Wet the wood to raise the grain
- Sanded lightly with 120, then 220
- treated with Minwax pre-stain conditioner (water based)
- Sanded lightly with 220
- Applied stain (Minwax water based).
- Wipe off stain after about 2 - 3 minutes
The following is the result, but the grain looks weird to me. Keep in mind this is still wet with the second coat of color and no clear yet. The grain seems lighter than the actual wood, when in past experience with staining, it's usually the opposite. This is also just barely pressing the cloth to remove any stain, which is why there is a line or two in it. If I press hard, the area that are light green in the pictures go almost back to bare wood.
Am I doing something wrong, or is this just the pine at work? It looks ok I guess but it's not what I was picturing.
