Stain for furniture finishing

Stain is the finishing material to form and create color. Stain is made of mixture of pigments with thinner (mixture of solvent) and little amount of resin as a binder. The pigment is materials to build the color of the stain. Resin is added as a binder to make the properties and stability of the stain mixture. The resin is also responsible to determine the characters of the stain. Then to make binder and pigment mixture does not too concentrated, and to make easier in the application, then the mixture is thinned with thinner (the mixture of the solvents). The thinner is mainly purposed to reduce the concentration of viscosity of the stain. The thinner will also build the character of the stain such as: drying time, penetrating power, the flow and also the final look of the final finishing resulted.

There two types of pigment, the organic and non organic pigment. Non-organic pigment is a pigment made from natural resources such as: stone or mineral mining that are grinned to become very small particles sizes. Some of non-organic pigment that is well known in furniture finishing industry are: Carbon black, Ferrite yellow, Raw Sienna, Raw umber, Lampblack, Titanium white, Red oxide. They can be used alone or mixed to make stain color.

While the organic pigment is a pigment made from organic materials, from the extraction of plants or animals. But with the development of the technology now more organic pigment are chemically made. The organic pigment that is most used in the furniture industry is the dye or aniline.
Both types of pigment have different properties and character. For example the particles size of organic pigment is smaller and it will perfectly solved in his solvent to make solution, while the non-organic pigment particles have larger size and the pigment can not solved but dispersed in the mixture.

In general, the differences between them can be viewed in the following table.

Properties	Organic pigment	Inorganic pigment
Color	Bright	Dull
Tinting strength	High	Vary
Density	Vary	Low
Light resistance	Low	High
Mixed type	Solution	Dispersion
Bleeding resistance	Vary	Good

The properties of stain

Pigment is the ingredient that determines the color of the stain, the other elements of the stain are the thinner and the resin. The resin and thinner will determine the properties of stain, such as: the penetration, drying time and strength of the stain. The stain properties is responsible to the look of the finishing results produced. For example, the longer stain to dry, then the more stain penetrate into the wood pores and grain. It will make the finish with more enhance the beauty of the wood pores and grain. Therefore, for the purpose of obtaining finishing results with better  show the characters of pores and grain, the stain should be designed with longer drying time. This stain sometime can be applied by pouring, dipping or brushing. This application will produce a beautiful finishing look that enhance the beauty of the unique character of the wood. 

Conversely, when the finishing look needed is less show wood pores and grain, then we need to use the fast dry stain. The fast dry stain will lay on the surface without wet and penetrate into the wood pores or grains. This stain can be applied with a dry spray or medium wet spray method. Spray the finishing material in a thin layer and do several times until get the color. When we want to hide the character of the wood grain and pores, the stain can be applied after sealer application. With this system the stain will not go to the pores or grains but just lay over the sealer. The color of the stain will cover the pores and grains character of the wood. 

To make finishing with solid color or opaque color, the pigment is mix with a kind of sealer or clear coating and the stain is known as base coat or enamel. The enamel or base coat stain cover the surface and close the color of the surface underneath.