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?
Varathane is decent. I tend to prefer water based stains, but I’m also finishing guitars which usually don’t feature as much end grain.
Checking for left over finish/glue depends on what they had on previously. Many wood glues glow under UV. Sometimes you can wet out the area with naphtha and see residue. Deep penetrating stains are a different beast though and your best bet, as suggested by others, may be to go with a paint rather than a dye.