Stained my desk with pine knots bleeding through after 3 weeks

I finished a desk build back in March using some cheap pine boards from Home Depot and stained it with a dark walnut gel stain. Looked amazing the first couple days, but after maybe 3 weeks I noticed these dark spots popping up right where the knots were. Turns out I didn't hit those knots with a shellac-based primer first, so the resin in the wood just soaked up the stain differently and bled through. I had to sand the whole top down and start over again, which took me a full weekend and an extra $12 for a can of Zinsser BIN. Now I tell everyone: if you're using pine or any knotty wood for a desk, seal those knots first or you'll regret it. Has anyone else dealt with this stain bleed issue on a budget build?

2 comments

2 Comments

diana_black2215d ago

Man my buddy ryan had this exact same thing happen with a coffee table he built for his living room. He used some knotty pine from the big box store and hit it with a minwax stain that looked perfect for like a month. Then the knots started oozing these dark yellow blotches that made the whole thing look like someone spilled coffee on it repeatedly. He tried sanding just the spots but the resin kept bleeding through even after that. Eventually he had to strip the whole top with chemical stripper and start from bare wood again. Now he keeps a can of BIN shellac in his garage at all times and tells everyone to just skip the headache and spend the extra couple bucks upfront.

evan29515d ago

Shellac is the only way.