Stain is a special tinting compound used to process wood, as well as fiberboard, chipboard and other similar materials. With its help, you can create the desired shade, as well as additionally protect the natural massif from pests, premature destruction. Many similar compositions are on sale. If you wish, you can make a wood stain for your own hands. Interesting recipes and expert recommendations will be discussed later.
Varieties
Before considering how to make a tinting compound for wood materials with your own hands, you need to consider the varieties that are most actively used today in the course of such work. All stains are divided into species according to the type of base. They can be:
- water;
- alcohol;
- oil;
- acrylic;
- wax.
Each of the listed materials has a specific set of characteristics. So, one of the most common varieties are water stains for wood. It’s easy to make such a composition with your own hands. To do this, acquire dry powder and dilute it in water. You can buy a ready-to-use liquid composition.
Safe for humans and the environment are water stains for wood. With your own hands, such compounds can be prepared in seconds. Dry powder dissolves quickly in water. Stain is suitable for both outdoor and indoor use. At the same time, the palette of shades is diverse. It can be a tone from light gray to dark red.
The disadvantage of waterborne varieties of wood stains is their limited scope. For resinous rocks such an impregnation is not suitable. Otherwise, ugly spots appear on the surface of the wood.
Also, when staining with aqueous compounds, one can observe how the fibers of a natural material are lifted. This allows you to emphasize the texture, but at the same time the wood will become more susceptible to moisture.
Alcohol, oil base
How to make a wood stain with your own hands? First you need to determine what effect you plan to achieve when using the stinger (the so-called stain). If you need to ensure that the impregnation dries quickly, it is best to use alcohol varieties for these purposes. They are also sold in powder or finished form.
The coloring composition in this case penetrates deeply into the structure of the array. In just half an hour, the stain dries. To apply such a stain for a tree with your own hands, a spray gun is used. If you apply a brush, ugly spots and stains may appear. This is due to the quick drying of the alcohol.
Wood after such processing becomes unaffected by moisture and ultraviolet radiation. The disadvantage is the pungent odor and the need for a spray gun.
Also, during the finishing work, an oil stain is used. With your own hands, applying it is quite simple. In this case, you can color the wood in almost any color. There are two types of oil stigmas:
- pigmented - creates a uniform shade, hides the structure of the material;
- impregnating - colors the array from the inside, emphasizing the natural texture.
An oil-based stain dries not as fast as alcohol varieties. But this property makes it easy to use. You can apply this product on the surface with a regular brush. In this case, the layer will be uniform, and the fibers will not rise. A film does not form on the surface, which allows the wood to breathe. This fact significantly extends its life. To make such a stain, you need a white spirit. A thick viscous base is diluted with this solvent.
Wax and acrylic stains
Another variety is a wax stain for wood. With your own hands, applying it is quite simple. At the same time, the presented variety is often used in the restoration of old wooden surfaces. If there are spots on the coating, differences in shades that have appeared over time, the wax composition will completely equalize them. However, the differences in shades should be small. Otherwise, they will still be visible.
A wax stain creates a protective film on the surface of the material that will repel moisture. Therefore, such compositions are used even in wet rooms. Also, when decorating or restoring the floor, it is advisable to use bees based on wax. If water accidentally spills onto the surface during cleaning, it will not impregnate the finish structure.
But it is worth remembering that a wax film is subject to mechanical stress. Therefore, it is also covered on top with a layer of varnish. Such a tandem will ensure the durability of the shade, without allowing moisture, scratches, other adverse effects to spoil the surface of the wood.
Acrylic varieties of stains are distinguished by a rich color palette. For example, you can choose a hue from rich burgundy black to light tone. Natural brown, honey, red and gray wood stains are especially popular in interior fittings. It’s easy to apply such a composition with your own hands. The texture of the natural array is emphasized. Acrylic and wax compounds are also called rustic.
Plant components
It is quite possible to make a stain with your own hands. The recipes are varied. They may include plant components. Plants create a variety of shades:
- Reddish Orange This shade is obtained when using onion peels. This composition is suitable for light wood. A strong broth is brewed from the husk. The water stain is applied with a brush in its pure form or added to brownish water formulations.
- Reddish. This shade is obtained when using a decoction of larch bark. Most often it is used to process birch.
- Brown. The broth is prepared from the walnut shell. The shell should slightly rot, and then it is dried under a canopy. The material is collected and crushed to a powder in a mortar. It is added to boiling water and insisted, filtered and a pinch of soda is added. A gray tint will turn out if, after applying such a stain, cover the surface of the wood with acetic acid.
- Black stain for wood. With your own hands, the composition is created from oak or alder bark.
- Brown honey. The shade is obtained from a decoction of willow and oak bark, as well as alder catkins and walnut shells. All ingredients are ground, added to cold water. A teaspoon of soda is also poured here. You need to boil a little composition over low heat. The composition is cooled, filtered.
- Yellow. For light wood, a stain is prepared from the fruits of buckthorn (unripe). To make the shade more saturated, alum is added to the broth.
- Brown. The bark of an apple tree used for decoction gives a rich brown tint.
Tea, coffee, vinegar, potassium permanganate
You can make natural wood stains for a tree from tea or coffee, as well as vinegar.
There is theanine in tea, which perfectly tones light wood species. To make the shade darker, you need a strong tea leaves. Black tea is suitable for these purposes. The more concentrated the tea leaves, the darker the shade.
Coffee is also used for tinting wood. To prepare the product, you need to grind coffee grains, and then add a little soda to them. You can simply brew a strong drink, and then use it as a stain.
From vinegar, you can prepare a special composition. To do this, prepare metal parts, for example, nails. They are degreased and then poured with vinegar. The container is left for several days in a dark place. The longer the vinegar stands, the richer the shade will turn out. But the maximum duration of this process is equal to a week.
This composition has a very pungent odor, so you need to process the wood on the street. Using this recipe, you can get a special wood stain color. Do-it-yourself stain when applied imitates an ebony tree. If the wood had an initially dark shade, for example, after staining with strong tea, then after a similar composition it will become coal-black.
Shades from cherry to dark brown are obtained using potassium permanganate. For this, it is taken in an amount of 50 g and dissolved in a liter of water. Immediately after preparation, the solution is applied with a brush to the wood. After 5 minutes, it is rubbed with a damp cloth. If you repeat the procedure again, the hue will be darker and more saturated. If you create a 3.5% solution of potassium permanganate and process it with birch veneer, you get a golden brown hue. After applying potassium permanganate, the wood is varnished with a special composition. Otherwise, such a shade will fade over time.
Chemical compounds
Considering how to make a wood stain with your own hands, you can familiarize yourself with a few more recipes. Some wood grades contain large amounts of theanine, such as oak or walnut. If you process such wood with slaked lime, you get a brown tint. At the same time, the nut will have a greenish hue.
If the wood is light, you can give it a noble shade with the help of a barberry root. A decoction is made of it, into which two percent alum is added. The liquid is boiled, cooled and filtered. You can also make a wood stain with your own hands from iodine. To do this, add a little of this tool to the broth. This will add a brown tint to depth, saturation.
If instead of a barberry root, poplar shoots are used, the color will be more saturated. To do this, prepare 150 g of poplar branches. They are poured with water, alum is added and boiled for an hour. The filtered composition must be defended in a glass bowl for 7 days. Only after that the composition is ready for use. If this product is mixed with a decoction of oak bark, then the shade of the wood will be brownish-greenish.
If you want to create a light emerald shade, add 50 g of copperfish to vinegar. The product is boiled for 10-15 minutes. After filtering the composition, they process the surface. If the product is planed, it is better to soak it in a warm solution until the desired shade is obtained.
From the fruit of privet, you can make a stain, which will give the wood a black color. To do this, the juice of the fruit of the plant is mixed with different acids. If you add water to it, the shade will be blue.
Gray tint
Creating a wood stain for a tree with your own hands, you can get different shades. This, for example, may be gray. You can even make a silver tint. To prepare a solution for surface treatment, water and vinegar are mixed in equal proportions. To this add rusty nails or other metal products. The solution is insisted for some time without nails, and then the rusty metal is added to the liquid.
To make the gray color more saturated, ammonia diluted with water is used. Work is carried out in the fresh air. This product must not be allowed to come into contact with the skin. Ammonia vapor is not recommended to be inhaled, therefore it is necessary to work accurately. You need to act quickly, since the stain in such conditions loses its properties in a short time.
When the wood is painted in the desired shade, the solution is washed off with water. To process a small product in a closed dish, lower the workpiece and an open jar of ammonia. After a few hours, the wood product is removed from the container.
Whitening
Do-it-yourself stain for wood can also lighten the material. Bleaching allows you to prepare the material before painting. So the tone of the coating will look more expressive.
It is worth considering that when carrying out a similar procedure, some tree species acquire their original color. So, for example, a walnut acquires a pale pink color, the apple tree gets a shade of ivory.
After applying the bleach stain, the birch becomes greenish. For this, a solution of oxalic acid is used. Ash, oak just brighten without changing its color. If you treat the Anatolian nut with hydrogen peroxide, the concentration of which will be at least 15%, the hue will turn golden.
Preparation of oxalic acid bleaching stain
For bleaching wood, different solutions are used. Their speed of exposure to the material can vary significantly.
One of the agents often used for these purposes is a solution prepared from oxalic acid. To do this, prepare 100 g of boiled water. From 1.5 to 6 g of acid are dissolved in it. It is best to use this tool for light wood, for example, linden, birch, poplar, maple, etc.
If the array was dark, when treated with such a solution, ugly stains and gray spots may appear. In other cases, the result will be spectacular. To de-tar the surface and raise the pile, after processing with a solution of oxalic acid, the array is moistened with a different composition. It is prepared from 100 g of boiling water, 3 g of soda ash and 15 g of bleach.
The use of hydrogen peroxide
To work, you need a 25% solution of hydrogen peroxide. This method is used for most wood species. The only exceptions are oak, lemon tree, rosewood.
The advantage of this technique is the fact that the wood does not need to be washed after processing. But such a solution will be effective only for finely porous materials. If there are a lot of tannins in the structure, clarification is very difficult. To facilitate this process, first the surface is treated with a 10% solution of ammonia.