Gel Stains

[J]

I am putting Gel Stain on Maple plywood wall unit. I would like to finish in
Polyurethane, can I use water based Poly or do I need to use oil based poly
?

Thanks

[JGS]

Either one will be fine. Normally gel stains are oil based therefore water based
poly will lift less of the already applied stain than the oil based poly.
Cheers, JG

[Mike Barnett]

Since you're working on WOOD as opposed to fiberglass or plastic, I
wonder why you are using gel stain in the first place. That shit is
like painting with colored snot, only worse.

I probably haven't talked you out of the gel stain, so go with the
water-based poly.

Lots o' luck.

[Preston Andreas]

I wouldn't use gel stain. It is too hard to get it even on larger surfaces.

With the proclivity of maple to blotch, I put on a 1 pound cut of blonde
shellac, scuff sand it, then apply a dye or stain. Since the wood is
partially sealed, the color will be lighter than a piece of wood without the
shellac, so you may need a darker stain or dye to get the color you want.

If you use a dye, you get almost no blotching, but there won't be much
difference in the dark and light figure in the wood. If you use stain, the
contrasts in the figure are more pronounced, but you will get a little more
blotching. If the minor amount of blotching is acceptable, then go with the
stain.

I typically use Trans-tint water based dyes. It is easy to apply and easy
to adjust the saturation of the color to get the desired results.

With a water based dye, you either need to use an oil based or lacquer
finish. If you want to use a water-based finish, you need to seal the dye
in with something like shellac or the dye might lift into the coat of
finish.

Preston
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