Can you help me refinish my cabinets?

Lynnoliver
by Lynnoliver
I am trying to find someone who knows a lot about wood. I live in AZ and I am refinishing my cabinets. They are maple. I take the doors out to have them stripped but I am stripping the facing myself. I have used a Citristrip product that works really well. The wood is down to its natural state. However, there is a difference in color where the doors/drawers set on the wood. The exposed wood is darker. I have sanded it used some products on it nothing works. If I stain over it without fixing the color difference the stain will take differently. Is there someone who can help me with this? The guy at Ace Hardware told me that the natural chemicals in the wood are leached out with the moisture because it is so dry here. He suggested CLR which I have tried but does not completely fix the problem. HELP???
  5 answers
  • Mary Mary on Feb 05, 2017

    Stains are easy and odd to apply. When you sand the wood, the coarser the sand paper the darker the stain. The smoother you sand it, the lighter the stain. When sun light and age hits wood the new stains do come out different. Sometimes you will have to apply two different stains to achieve the color you're after. Look at the charts and if you find a couple that are close get a small can of both and try on a piece of wood, see the difference.

  • William William on Feb 05, 2017

    Thank you, Hillela! Been a woodworker for 20+ years. I have bleached wood more than I can count. My go to is oxalic acid.

    • Lynnoliver Lynnoliver on Feb 05, 2017

      William: Thank you for responding. I have a few more questions, if you don't mind. Does the acid affect the staining process? How long do you wait between the acid treatment and staining. I am using the DIY Driftwood product which is a powder I mix with water. The product interacts with the tannins (sp?) in the wood. Different woods will take the product differently. I finish it off with a liquid wax product they sell. Have you used the product? Will the acid you suggest interfere or change the tannins in the wood.

  • William William on Feb 05, 2017

    The Oxalic acid does not affect the staining process once neutralized and dried. It lightens the wood by reacting with dyes (tannins) in the wood but not the look or grain of the wood. I seems that the Driftwood product you use is Oxalic or bleach based. After any of the processes are neutralized and the wood is dry, some sanding will be needed as the moisture raises the grain, then it can be stained.

  • Lynn Blumenfeld Lynn Blumenfeld on Feb 06, 2017

    I gave up on staining and decided to paint. I removed the doors, all 22 of them, and took them to an auto body and paint shop. He painted them a high gloss black and I painted the front of the cabinets to match. They were wall to wall except for 2 and so I painted the sides of those. Came out looking great especially after I added white knobs and drawer pulls.