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Has anyone, who is willing to share their experience, sprayed water-soluble aniline stain on red spruce as a toner?

Best wishes!

-Rich
Go Army!

Belay my last. I just opened the shipping box, and the torrefaction toned top perfectly for me.

The picture doesn't do justice to the color. In actuality, the top is quite darker.

Best wishes!

-Rich
Go Army!

try tea as a stain

Thanks John. It turns out, the torrefaction did the job of darkening it for me.

Best wishes!

-Rich
Go Army!

I do a lot of vintage repairs and use this when braces or spruce needs replaced.

Funny sidenote - don’t use decaf tea.

Many years ago I built a ship model; it was recommended to stain the rigging with tea. So, I soaked the lines in tea… after one hour, nothing, after three hours nothing, after one day, nothing! What the heck?

I used another tea bag and the staining occurred within ten minutes. What was the difference? Well, my wife was pregnant and had replaced most of the teabags in the house with decaffeinated tea. File this under the ‘strange but true’ finishing tips section.

Decaf…ha! One more reason to love caffeine.
I use tea stain a lot. Boil up a pot with about 6 tea bags, simmer down until it is a thick honey-like goo, then thin with denatured alcohol.

I've got some platinum blonde shellac en route. I'll shoot that to seal the top before routing. That may darken it a little, as well. We'll see.

Best wishes!

-Rich
Go Army!