Hi
Recently got well into bleaching my previously painted oak front door. I looked up all the info on bleaching oak. I got the door stripped and then once dry it was too dark still.
I want that really popular light oak colour similar to pine in how dark it is but different if you know what I mean because obviuosly it is oak and not pine.
I first used oxilic acid, a bleech, to lighten stains etc in wood, and then neutralized it as you are supposed to do. I did this twice and it got better but no where near that light colour.
So as it tells you to do on any site with this, it says first use this acid then move onto calcium hypochlorite (swimming pool bleach), which I have done twice and neutralized twice too.
It now looks like driftwood in colour ie a bit whitewashed, which I am not worried about because this bleeching only effects the surface, it does not penetrate very far. So any sanding will bring the colours back, the key seems to be to fine sand it only, to bring it back. But still there are some colours in it I do not want, ie i'd rather stain it with something from the white colour it is now to bring it to light oak without bringing any unwanted colours out.
Question is what to stain it with, most stains, even weak ones make it too dark straight away, and I find the water based ones make it really patchy and horible. I want it to look natural light oak and then seal it.
Anyone any ideas please?
Recently got well into bleaching my previously painted oak front door. I looked up all the info on bleaching oak. I got the door stripped and then once dry it was too dark still.
I want that really popular light oak colour similar to pine in how dark it is but different if you know what I mean because obviuosly it is oak and not pine.
I first used oxilic acid, a bleech, to lighten stains etc in wood, and then neutralized it as you are supposed to do. I did this twice and it got better but no where near that light colour.
So as it tells you to do on any site with this, it says first use this acid then move onto calcium hypochlorite (swimming pool bleach), which I have done twice and neutralized twice too.
It now looks like driftwood in colour ie a bit whitewashed, which I am not worried about because this bleeching only effects the surface, it does not penetrate very far. So any sanding will bring the colours back, the key seems to be to fine sand it only, to bring it back. But still there are some colours in it I do not want, ie i'd rather stain it with something from the white colour it is now to bring it to light oak without bringing any unwanted colours out.
Question is what to stain it with, most stains, even weak ones make it too dark straight away, and I find the water based ones make it really patchy and horible. I want it to look natural light oak and then seal it.
Anyone any ideas please?