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Please help: dark stain for solid quartersawn white oak?

14 years ago

Our beautiful new quartersawn white oak floors were just installed, and are due to be sanded tomorrow; stained the next. I've looked at different Minwax stain colors (provincial, early american and gunstock) and our GC has applied them to a plank with a single coat, followed a single coat of poly to give me an idea. To me, they look pretty light --- and the color does not seem as saturated/deep as my existing, preengineered Bruce hardwood "gunstock".

So please tell me, how can I achieve a darker, medium dark stain? Don't want to go super dark, like an ebony, but darker than gunstock. I read in a wood forum that maybe a dye should be used? Will flooring contractor know what to do with a dye versus a stain? He's going to follow the stain with 4 coats of Poly because of our dog (Bella).

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Comments (5)

glennsfc
14 years ago
Perhaps water popping, if you can find someone who knows how to do that...probably a trained floor finisher?
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peytonroad
14 years ago
I went with the minwax Jacobean. I nearly had a heart attack at first with the darkness of them but they lightened CONSIDERABLY! I have red oak QS floors, they are just gorgeous! Here are some pictures. PLease go with this stain, I wanted dark floors and believe it or not, this is not the dark I wanted but I am soooo glad i went with this color. The ebony was just too black and I did not want black I wanted brown.
So, would I do it again wanting dark brown, YES!
here are pics, while staining and the last two after shellac. the last photo is the color of the threshold, regular red oak. I hope this helps you.
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Quartersawn (or rift and quartersawn combined) with ray fleck visible may only be 10%-50% of a quartersawn lot, depending on the manufacturer and what grading rules they follow. NOFMA defines quartersawn as having 50% of the floor boards with quartersawn characteristics and this includes ray fleck being present. I got this from a commercial flooring website that has the grading rules summarized. NOFMA does not appear to have a separate web site any longer and is now part of the NWFA. This website has less technical information readily available to the consumer concerning grading rules of flooring, which is a shame. In the combined R&Q flooring I installed, I would say 15% had ray fleck and that was O.K. by me. If someone wanted ray fleck in every board or plank, they could certainly get it.The price for this selection would be higher.
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We are overwhelmed and touched by your responses. Thank you all for your time and thoughts! I'm amazed that so many of you have gone with quartersawn oak --I see so few in the magazines and on the gallery here, but of course someone's buying it or there wouldn't be so many cabinet companies offering it. Cotahele and sombriuel mongrel, your kitchens are GORGEOUS -- and very period appropriate. Cotahele, I love the giant windows. The cabinetry blends with them perfectly, and the overall effect is definitely sunny and warm (great gold wall color!). Sombriuel mongrel, I really love the shellac. I 'rejuvenated' all the oak trim on our old house, so I appreciate the work involved and the rich glow that results. It looks 'like it was always there' (only better). Boxerpups, I don't know how you come up with a slew of pictures for every situation. I also loved looking at the Kennebec and Crown Point kitchens sumitted by others -- I looked at them years ago, but only saw the white... Thank you all!
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We have quartersawn white oak floors that have no stain and just an aluminum oxide finish for protection...they were pre-finished in a very matte finish we specified to be put on at the mill. The quarter sawing changes the appearance of the grain so they may look a little different from yours unless yours are also quartersawn? We love the color and though they do scratch a little (we have two VERY active larger dogs, a Border Collie and and English Shepherd)the lighter color hides the scratches so far and doesn't show a lot of dirt. Night shot with flash Daylight with no flash Good luck! Kat :)
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Wow! Thank you all so much for responding. All of the kitchens above are beautiful! I'm not concerned any more..I'm going full speed ahead..hehe What would we do without this website...I love it!! I can't wait to post my finished project photos.
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bellacucina
Original Author
14 years ago
glennsfc, we are on a timeline to get the kitchen done.... so I didn't push for popping of the rays with danish oil, or even water popping. Gotta draw the line somewhere! This flooring guy seems to know his stuff.

Thanks peytonroad! Your pics are wonderful ---and your floors -WOW! We did a sample of the jacobbean and it was beautiful, but a little too brown for the cherry w/ dark stain cabs.

So after looking at what others have used, we did a sample with 50-50 ebony and red mahogany, and finally went with a mix of 75% red mahogany, 25% ebony. It was just enough black to take the pink undertone out of the red mahogany. So the floors were stained today, and I love the 'custom' shade. It's perfect with the dark cherry cabs!
bama12
14 years ago
bellacucina....How did your floors turn out? We are about to stain our floors also, and had previously used provencial. I also want to go with a little bit darker color.
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bellacucina
Original Author
14 years ago
Hi bama12, they are beautiful! I'm not sure whether my dh took any pics of the floor, but will post back tomorrow if he did... It still is not 100 percent done tho, so may look slightly different in the end. The floor guy did 2 coats of poly now- before cabs go in- and will do 2 more when everything is done.

The color is like the darkest veins in a Bruce gunstock panel, maybe with the tiniest hint of red in it. But it would be best to try it to see what you
think. My cherry cabs with sable glaze are only slightly darker tho...so hopefully there's enough contrast when all the pieces of the puzzle are together.
0

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