General Finishes Oil Base Gel Stain, 1 Pint, Antique Walnut

The dreamiest color of browns! I used this gel for my very heavy wood console table. (Aka rail road ties) applying this to this kind of wood was super easy. I did use two coats to get the red tone out of the wood. It seals good, apply’s smooth. And it actually drys quickly! The gel is medium thickness but not like paint. Worth the price, good quality product! Have re-ordered more than twice!

This is a perfect brown stain color. I didn't want my pieces to be black, like the Java gel stain seems to be. I wanted the gorgeous wood grain to still be visible, and I am thrilled with how it turned out. I purchased brown mahogany first because some reviews said it was just a step lighter than Java. I was very disappointed that it was WAY more red than Java. I was not wanting any red tone at all, so I bought Antique Walnut. I ended up doing one coat Brown Mahogany, two coats Antique Walnut and I love the way it turned out. I want to make it clear that the pictures I have attached are of that combination- 1 coat brown mahogany, 2 coats antique walnut. It took some serious tweaking, but well worth it. I gave it a go on a solid oak table my dad made and was passing on to me. I sanded it and two benches down with a 120 grit sandpaper and used the "foam brush- shop cloth wipe off" method. It was a disaster. It was splotchy and looked terrible. Turns out it wasn't my application method that was awful, it was the condition of my wood. After contacting General Finishes customer service, and also posting on a woodworking community board I found my problem was that my dad had previously finished the table/benches with Danish oil. I had not sanded down deep enough to get rid of that oil (same goes if the wood has been treated with Pledge or certain other things they list). It was recommended on the woodworking board to start sanding with 60 grit and work my way up all the way to 220 grit. I wiped the surface down with mineral spirits first, as suggested on the General Finishes video. The stain went on like BUTTER and looks absolutely gorgeous!! I used the sock method this time and it's SO much better than the foam brush method. No need to wipe off with cloth after, and it goes on so smoothly!! A little goes a long way. I will absolutely buy General Finishes gel stain for every staining project I do from now on!!! The pictures I attached are of one of the finished benches. One coat Brown Mahogany, 2 coats Antique Walnut. You can see in one of the pictures the other bench to the left in progress. The bottom legs of that bench are the original sanded-down oak. Once everything has been stained, I will finish it later with the General Finishes Arm-R-Seal which has been amazing on other pieces I have refinished.

This product works well and is easy to use. I brought the antique walnut stain because the Java seemed to dark. I am glad I did, the antique walnut came out as dark brown and really complements my white stair posts. The only thing is that in some places, the gel dried faster than other places. As a result, I had to let the gel sit a few days longer to dry. Also, it's important to let whatever you are staining dry completely. If you don't let the gel dry completely, the stain will not apply to the surface properly. The time that it take really just depends on the type of wood that you are applying the stain to...finished or unfinished? I applied the gel stain to a finished staircase and just slightly scuffed up the surface. Either way applied, it comes out looking pro! This product look so great that even my contractor and painter were asking me for the product name. Great product General Finishes!

I ordered one of Java Gel and Antique Walnut gel stain and started three different projects the second I had the cans out of the boxes. Love both of them and they each have great attributes depending on the look you want. I had painted a dresser with old white and French linen chalk paint and wanted something to add interest and dimension so I tried the antique walnut on top - the first coat looked promising but the second coat was the winner. I had sanded too aggressively and had a couple splotches that were evident until the second coat. WOW, great coverage and grain still comes through. The Java Gel will take two coats on one project and another I just finished and it's so rich and elegant looking. If I have the nerve, I will try a sample of Java Gel on our freshly sanded light oak stairs. We just had Luxury Vinyl Floors put in and they're fairly dark with hints of gray but mostly dark browns. I think the stairs in Java Gel will compliment our floors beautifully. Let's hope because sanding stairs is such a nightmare. Love General Finishes.

Buy this gel stain! We have light, builders grade banisters in our house that I have hated since the day we moved in and match nothing else in the house. I really wanted to refinish them but I was scared to wreck them. Well, after reading 4 million reviews, videos from everyone I could find, endless pictures comparing colors, I went for it and I couldn’t be happier. I ended up only needing 1 coat of the Antique Walnut and a few touch up areas. Here is exactly what I did. Prep work is key. Don’t skimp here. 1. I cleaned the banisters with Krud kutter ( not the deglosser) and a green scotch bright pad and wiped clean. 2. Clean with a green scotch bright pad and and a good amount of Dawn soap and water. 3. Give a medium scrub down with mixture of 50 denatured alcohol and 50 water with yet another scotch bright pad. Let dry 2 hours. 4. Give a light sanding with a 220 grit sanding pad ( or 400 sheets I believe it what the company said). I used the 220 klingspor flexible sanding pad they recommended in one of the company videos. They are great! One pack was more then enough for the entire banister. 5. Vacuum up the dust really well. 6. Wipe with a damp cloth to remove more dust. 7. Wipe with an oil free tack cloth. I only needed one. 8. Tape everything off with green frog tape and use drop cloths. 9. Start staining! When staining I used these items. A paint cup, foam paint brush, short handled stain grade paint brush ( don’t cheap out), 2- 1” chip brush, extra paint brush, several terry cloth rags, odor free mineral spirits, a plastic cup, gloves, and a cardboard box to sit everything in as I worked. 1. Stir the gel stain well and pour some in the paint cup. Pour and inch or two of mineral spirits in your plastic cup. Put all your supplies in your box and you are ready to go! 2. Dip your rag in the mineral spirits and lightly wipe down the section you are going to work on. This is key! It allows you more time to work and blend. I worked in about 8-10” sections at a time. Try to find natural divisions as blending sections is the hardest part. By the time I got to the second railing I had realized that I could do the side first, then the top and it was easier to blend rather then all the way around the rail before moving on. 3. Dip the foam brush in the gel stain and brush on the wood. Don’t go crazy but use enough that it’s a solid color. 4. Give it just a few seconds then use the short handled stain brush to brush through the gel and start removing some color. Have your rag in your other hand with just a little mineral spirits on it. Dab your brush on the rag to remove the excess stain. 5. Use the chip brush to remove stain in groves and along edges. The chip brush in particular will make it look super streaky. Don’t panic! 6. Keep using your stain brush and the chip brush until quite a bit has been removed and you are sure you have destroyed it because it’s so streaky. 7. Take the extra paint brush, which you use dry, and start very gently brushing over everything. This will blend it all together. You should have removed enough product that you can still see the grain of the wood. It’s stain not paint after all. 8. When you are happy with it move on and wipe the next section with the mineral spirits rag and continue. 9. Let dry 24hrs. At that point you can very carefully touch up any areas that are too light. Give a wipe with mineral spirits, dap on a touch of color with the foam brush and blend. 10. Let dry and then seal with a top coat. I haven’t done this yet, as it’s still drying, but plan to use Arm R Seal semi gloss. Tips: -if you totally mess up a section you are working on you can remove all the product with a mineral spirit rag and start again. You will NOT be able to do this later or tomorrow so do it immediately if you aren’t happy. -If you work in too large of a section and the gel starts to dry or it’s too thick you can dip your extra chip brush in mineral spirits and gently brush over that area to remove some. - If you can’t finish in one day be sure to stop at a natural division line. You will not be able to remove the stain tomorrow or get it to blend in perfectly. I left some on one newel post and then when I started the next day I couldn’t get it off so that area is darker and is what it is. -Do NOT go back to a section you did earlier. You will mess it up!!! Wait until tomorrow to fix it.

General Finishes Gel Stain is one of the best products I have purchased. We wanted to update the look of our hundred-year-old house and one of the projects was re-staining the oak baseboards and doors as well as the window and door frames. The gel stain has a thick consistency, almost like pudding, but it is easy to apply. We followed advises that I could find on Pinterest and it worked like a charm! Good cleaning, followed by light sanding and stain application will give you an amazing result, and you don’t have to be an expert in staining! I recommend using a sock versus a foam brush – it worked better for me, and I had more control over application of the stain. Just remember to use glove underneath the sock! I used a water based General Finishes Poly as a top coat and it worked great. This is an amazing product, which is easy to use and gives incredible results. One issue we had this time around was delivery. Our product came half opened and some of the stain was spilled inside of the package.

I have used a lot of dark stain from Minwax and Varathane and finally found this GF to be the closest to walnut. Highly recommend gel stain which is extremely forgiving and hiding the imperfection very well compared to traditional oil stain. Let say your flush router bit left some dented marks on the trim. The regular stain will highlight that. Not with this gel stain. Dry time is about 10-12 hours in Florida humidity.

I upgraded a coiuple of1990's light wood bathrooms, and it turned out awesome!! If you are not quite ready for a $50K upgrade to your bathroom/kithcen/whatever, skip this step, and just do it. If you wnt a cheap way to buy you a few years before a major impovemen,do this, along with premanufactured Chinese "granite" counter tops. I purchased a house built in 1990, and it had the horrible lite colored wood,and irriplacable doors (and fixtures), but the previous owner spent $3K upgrading 4 bathrooms wiht the cheap Chinese "granite" counter tops, so I was stuck wiht a tough decision... Scrap it all, and start over, or do some cheap upgrades to buy a few years until I could recover from the down payment to do it "right". This is an awesome option. Thbe 1990s pinkish pine (and out of style doors) were tough to recover from, but I was surprised how nice it turned out. to replace it all (or flip it, and move on). Easy instructions: Sand down the exisig "wood" to accept the "paint"/Stain. If your old cubbords are made of real wood, sand them down. If not, do a light sanding to accept the "paint" (you'll need a thick layer of stain). You can work hard to stain it, or just paint this sh*t on for a nice brown that could be replaced by some brown paint. If your cubbords are particle board with stickers for cover, just paint this on like it's paint (or, use brown paint), and use gell goat to seal it. The key is, seal it with Poliurithane (see below). Plyurithane adds the shine that makes it look good: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VZLF58/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1