Which wood stain should I use — water, spirit or oil-based?

Stain colour cards suggest the choice is about colour. It is not: the same colour is available in every carrier, and the carrier is what determines whether you get an even finish or a mess of laps. On a door or a floor, the working time you have before the stain sets is the single most important property, and it varies enormously between the three.

Step by step

1. Water-based — low odour, fast, and it raises the grain.Colour carried in water. It has the least smell, cleans up in water and is the most environmentally benign, and modern ones are lightfast. Against that: water swells the wood fibres so the grain lifts and needs de-nibbing, and it dries fast enough that laps show on anything larger than a small panel. Raise and sand the grain deliberately before staining to defuse the first problem.
2. Spirit or alcohol-based — very fast, for small and precise work.Colour carried in alcohol. It penetrates readily, dries in minutes and barely raises the grain, which makes it excellent for touching in a repair, colouring a small piece, or shading. It is close to unusable by brush on a door or a floor, because it sets before you reach the far end, and its dyes are generally the least lightfast.
3. Oil or white-spirit-based — slow, forgiving, the safe default.Pigment and dye carried in a slow-evaporating solvent. It stays workable long enough to spread, wipe back and even out across a big surface, it barely raises the grain, and it is by far the most forgiving for a first attempt. The costs are a strong solvent smell, a long wait before anything can go on top, and a white spirit cleanup.
4. Choose on the size of the surface first.A floor, a run of doors or a large panel means you need working time, which means oil-based. A small box, a repair or a piece of shading means speed is an advantage, which allows spirit. Anything in between, and low odour matters, water-based is fine.
5. Check what is going on top before you buy.A water-based varnish or lacquer over an oil stain that has not fully cured will not adhere and may lift it — allow the full cure time, which is longer than it feels. An oil-based finish over a dry water stain is generally fine. A coat of dewaxed shellac between the two isolates any combination you are unsure about.
6. Deal with blotch-prone timbers before staining, not after.Pine, cherry, birch and maple absorb unevenly and blotch badly. A pre-stain conditioner or a thin coat of dewaxed shellac evens the absorbency out. On these woods this step is not optional, whatever carrier you choose.
7. Test on the same timber, sanded the same way.Stain colour on a card bears little relation to the colour on your wood: species, grain, sanding grit and the number of applications all change it. Test on an offcut of the same material, sanded identically, and apply as many coats as you intend to.

Tips

• Every stain only goes darker. You can add another application, but you cannot lighten a stain that has gone too dark without sanding it out.
• Sanding grit changes stain colour: a finer-sanded surface absorbs less and stains lighter. Sand every part of a piece to the same grit or the colour will vary.
• Gel stains sit more on the surface than in it, which makes them useful on blotch-prone woods and on surfaces where you cannot control absorbency.

Common mistakes

• Brushing a spirit-based stain onto a door — It sets within seconds of application, so every overlap and every stopping point shows as a dark line. Spirit stains are for small work.
• Varnishing over an oil stain the next day — Oil stains take far longer to cure than to feel dry. A water-based finish applied too soon will not bond and can lift the colour.
• Staining pine without a conditioner — The soft earlywood drinks and the dense latewood does not, so the result is blotchy in a way that cannot be evened out afterwards.

Questions people ask