A while back I was gifted some old classroom side tables the owner no longer needed. They came painted; I don’t know what kind of paint it was, but it was entirely resistant to citristrip. After finally working that out I painstakingly sanded the paint out from every nook and crevice with a dremel until I was confident it was clean. I dried it out, sanded it, and prepared to finally finish up.
Today I stained. Coat of wood conditioner, wait around half an hour, coat of stain. Maybe 3 more hours (instructions call for minimum 2) and a second coat. I was dismayed to find that while the top veneer stained beautifully, the legs came out splotchy. It looks like there was an invisible coat of primer on there or something that prevented the stain from taking. I am confident this is not the result of poor stain application; it was apparent that it wasn’t taking while I was brushing it. The band around the top also came out significantly darker than the top.
The band I know I probably can’t do anything about. It’s annoying but I can live with it. The legs are a different story. Is there anything I can do to make them take the stain more evenly?
P.S. I also had an entirely different table made of some kind of hardwood that I did. It took very evenly but didn’t color much even with two coats. I know with hardwoods that’s somewhat inevitable. Any tricks to make it take more, or do I just need to be happy with it?
Mentioned by others, but that mottled stain will be difficult to overcome. Have you considered paint rather than stain? If wood grain is very important, you could try to tint a poly finish - that would prob give the appearance you want - basically painting though.
Recently encountered this issue. Solution was many, many coats of stain and prestain, over about 4 days, light scraping with a sharp card scraper to level the surface each time.
After that ordeal, I have now learned that the pro move is a light base coat of Shellac, then on to the stain. I guess that helps to close pores more uniformly. Haven’t tried this way yet myself. Good luck!