There are a variety of shades of wood stain and two basic types that are commonly used: solvent and oil based. For restaining to darker colours It doesn’t matter which one you choose. Solvent-based dries faster, but oil-base seems deeper. It is possible to get great results with either product if your presanding is done correctly.
Laquer
You don’t need to remove each of the old blot to employ darker blot. But you do need to remove all of the lacquer, varnish or anything that will prevent fresh stain from absorbing into the timber. It’s easy to find the shiny edges of old lacquer, or the scratched surface of old lacquer. Your sanding block will creep over the aged lacquer before it begins to cut into it and remove it. The stain color will not change until the lacquer is still gone. When the stain begins to lighten along with your sanding is producing stain-colored dust, then you’ve made it to the surface of this blot. Change your sandpaper often when eliminating old lacquer. Use an oscillating tool with a hook and loop pad attachment and sandpaper as an alternative to some sanding block to remove the lacquer.
Roughing It
Once you’ve removed the lacquer, you want to sand into the stain. The thing is to rough up the surface of the wood evenly so that it absorbs stain evenly. Sand parallel with the grain pattern just. The stain will vanish from some areas faster than many others creating a blotchy impact; that’s okay, it will not appear like that when you apply stain if the new blot is darker compared to the original.
Polishing
1 thing to avoid is polishing. Wood absorbs stain through pores. When the pores are closed, the stain will not penetrate. Don’t use sandpaper finer than 100-grit. One hundred twenty five or above will polish the timber, closing the pores. Worn out or filthy sandpaper will even polish and close pores. Always keep fresh sandpaper on your hand cube or oscillating tool. Work with consistency to acquire the surface trimmed as evenly as you can. Don’t worry about removing the stain completely, it will not matter whether the new blot is darker.
Sanding
It’s okay to use an orbital sander initially to remove obsolete lacquer or rough up the formerly stained surface. But it’s vital that you follow up with hand sanding anytime you utilize this type of sander. Orbital sanders leave behind small swirls that will appear the second you apply fresh blot to them. Always follow behind these types of power sander by simply stroking the timber parallel with the grain. Lean down and allow light reflect off the surface of the wood. If there are really no swirls, cross grain scratches or stains of leftover lacquer, keep sanding by hand before applying darker blot. Using an oscillating tool doesn’t produce swirls because the power tool uses a side-to-side action.