Need to restain a wood entry door.

Tom and Sharon asked 10 years ago

We bought what looked like an oak entry door with side and top transoms. The outside was badly weathered and needed refinishing. We started by stripping and then sanding the whole unit. Many places in the weathered wood looked black, so we continued to sand. Finally, we were able to sand down past some of the blackened areas. However, now the beautiful grain is gone. We don’t think it is oak, but some kind of light wood, with remaining black blotches. Should we try to make it a dark mahogany color. At least we could hide the black areas. I am having trouble finding a stain that is dark enough. Would love the really dark, almost black, mahogany stain with a brownish red wood shining through in areas. How can we get this effect?

1 Answers
Crowder Painting answered.

The stains that I recommend are manufactured by Old Masters. Three products that they have are gel stain, heavily pigmented wiping stain and a penetrating stain. The wiping stain will be a little easier to use, but limited to how dark it can go, the gel and penetrating stains can go very dark with the <a href="//www.painters-toys.com/wood-stains/wood-gel-stain.html" target="_blank">gel stain</a> having the greatest ability for dark intense colors. One color that comes to mind is Rich Mahogany, available as a gel or penetrating stain. This is probably the color you are after.