Wood Staining Techniques: How to turn that chunky old stain into a finish you can use. A client of mine dropped a large suitcase down her stairs and snapped a spindle on the railing. I was confident the spindle was a stock item at a home store, but I needed to match the stain and sheen perfectly or the new spindle would stick out like a sore thumb. When I picked up the broken spindle, I asked her if the previous owners had left any stain when they moved out. ‘You’re in luck,’ she said as she emerged from the basement handing me the stain. This job would be a breeze! or so I thought. 
I picked up a spindle at the home store on my way back to my shop, but was disappointed to find a firm crust on top of the stain when I opened the can. I paid a visit to the local hardware store that carried the finish, but they had discontinued their stain line! What was I going to do? I punctured the crust inside the can of stain and found a goopy mess. But using the exact pigment, even with the chunky stain, would be easier than trying to match the stain from scratch. 
Photo 1. I brush my first coat despite the chunks and gunk. My goal is to get as much pigment sticking to the light colored spindle as possible.
Photo 2. I sand gently between coats to remove chunks and bits, attempting to remove most of the bumps without cutting through to the bare wood.
Photo 3. I add solvent to the stain and vigorously stir. I let the solvent sit in the can for an hour or so to soften up the lumps. My goal is to activate any of the remaining liquid stain and separate it from the chunks and bumps inside the can.
Photo 4. I strain the stain through a cone filter and pour only as much as I need for the project. I never know when my client might drop a suitcase again.
Photo 5. I brush the strained stain in the traditional manner. The final coat both deepens the color and dries with a glossy finish. When installed, it will be impossible to pick this spindle out from the others.
Photos By Mike Krivit
That is a really good tip particularly tto those fresh to the blogosphere.
Brief but very precise information… Thanks for sharing this one.
A must read article!
Thanks. I’m a novice always looking for helpful advice. Keep it coming.
I was able to do this with the original stain was chunks so I applied like a chalk sticks and proceed as you demonstrated so well.
Thanks
Sorry. With all respect, I dont buy it. You Never stain a solo item, away from the job…especially using old, reconstituted stain, And not knowing the technique used by the original craftsman. You talk about deepening the color…if you have nothing to compare with, how do you know when to stop? Yes, sometimes you can reconstituted, but there are more things to consider…
Is there a difference from using a rag to stain your wood vs. a brush? I used a rag to apply to my bookcase. After about 24 to 48 after staining, I applied finish coat with a foam brush to minimize bubbles, what surprise me as I was brushing the finish, the stain was lifting. Not sure what happen
Hi Jeffrey. This is common, as the finish dilutes the stain and the brushing action moves it around. I recommend spraying 2 coats of this product https://amzn.to/2AVtKqT to seal the stain before applying your final topcoat. Applying a spray finish will seal in the stain and not disturb it prior to your topcoat application. Or, you could try skipping the sealer and go straight to this product: https://amzn.to/35u63nA
Thanks
Paul-Woodworkers Guild of America
I brought a can of stain and it had a dent in it! I can’t get the lumps out of it were they cause from the dent?
Hi Nancy. I doubt that the impact had any bearing on the consistency of the stain. Keep stirring and hopefully you can eliminate the lumps. If not you could run the stain through a filter (readily available at paint stores) and remove the lumps that way.
Thanks
Paul-Woodworkers Guild of America
I have some old dark walnut stain and mixed/shook really well but the “darkest” part of stain is remaining at the bottom of can. So if I use, it looks like an oak stain as the dark chunky wont break down to even mix it in. Any suggestions… anything around the house I can use? THANK YOU
Hi Jessica. I would suggest using a stir stick and continuing to work it until it mixes in. Normally you can get it to mix in if you stick with it. If it is a lost cause I would suggest buying a new can.
Thanks
Paul-WWGOA
My daughter bought Cabot Australian deck stain but it may have frozen over the winter. It looks all cakie like rice pudding. She has stirred and stirred. Anything she can do to fix this?
Hi Maureen. I doubt that it can be saved if it looks like rice pudding, but I would suggest contacting Cabot customer support to see if they have any ideas.
Thanks
Paul-WWGOA
I have walnut vaneer on some old speakers one is pretty bad how hard wood it be to restore them
Hi Rene. Unfortunately I have never attempted this before so I don’t have a good response for you. I believe it will be a challenging project. My tendency would be to build new speaker boxes from scratch.
Thanks
Paul-WWGOA
Too bad that stain was not stored properly with Bloxygen. The heavy inert gas would have protected the leftover finish and this job would have been much easier.
What’s this Bloxygen and where and how do you use it?
Thanks
Hi Rennie. You can see it here https://amzn.to/2J6zakJ Basically, it’s used to purge oxygen from cans of finish so the finish lasts longer.
Thanks
Paul-WWGOA
There are other solutions (if you’ll pardon the pun) to keeping finish from drying out, ranging from decanting it into smaller containers to laying a olastic-wrap vapor barrier directly on top of the liquid to storing cans upside down so they tend to seal better.
Bloxygen is elegant but I’m not convinced it’s the most cost effective solution.
Also remember that in this case the author had no control over the storage and was extremely lucky to find a sample at all.
I’m just wondering why you wouldn’t try to add the solvent in the beginning. I’m in this situation right now with a large piece that I am trying to match to another one I did a year ago with a custom mix that of course I can’t remember how I made and I’m trying to reconstitute to the largest volume possible.
The author tried using the stain at its “full strength” initially to give the best chance at matching the original color without diluting the stain.
Paul-WWGOA
Stain is designed to be thin so that it will penetrate the wood grain. Using a ‘thick’ stain seems like you are actually painting the wood, since you do not get the proper penetration which is also a factor in the refinishing process.
Only problem with that thought is that the author wasn’t using ‘full’ strenght…the stain was concentrated due to evaporation.