Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - HELP with refinishing maple table

This is my first time refinishing. I have striped, sanded, and applied 2 coats of dark stain to my maple table. I didn't realize how tricky maple was to stain until after the fact. Now what? I am not sure how to correct my situation. The table top did not take the stain uniformally. Do I need to re-strip and sand or can I apply a gel on top of this, or will it still appear streaky? I could not find a gel dark enough at the local Home Depot, are there larger selections of gels out there? I was trying to achive a dark walnut/mocha color. Lastly, the stain seems a bit tacky 24 hours after the second coat. Should it be this way or is the Florida humidity causing this? Thank you for any advice!

Mckinley1021

Maple does not take stain well, but you know that now.

If the stain that you applied is sticky, it was applied too thickly and did not dry or a second coat was applied before the first one dried, or the stain was not wiped after application and was allowed to puddle on the surface in a manner usually reserved for paint. Temperature and humidity requirements shown on the product label will guide you in those areas. Stain performs poorly at low temperatures.

Wood is a natural product and gives natural results, mostly not uniform. Stain generally serves to enhance the appearance of the grain of the wood. Maple has little defining grain. Usually, maple is left its natural color.

You will achieve better results in staining wood dark, if you start with a dark wood, such as walnut. A wood that stains dark well enough to pass for others is poplar or mahogany.

You might try to scrub the surface with a coarse cloth wet with mineral spirits to see if you can remove enough of the sticky stain to allow what remains to dry. If that won't work or won't give you the results you desire, stripping the failed stain off will be the next step.

If you want maple to be mocha/walnut, a clear finish with the stain already mixed in it might be the way to go. Often, inexpensive furniture is colored in this manner. This is usually applied by spraying.

Hope this helps.

"Did not take the stain uniformly."

If the irregularity looks natural, relating to the wood grain, then your problem is that this wood naturally has variations in resin content. Resinous (normally invisible) patches resist stain. No amount of sanding will fix that; it just reveals deeper layers of resinous wood. The treatment is to prep with a wood conditioner before staining. This makes all the wood resist stain, equally. Use a commercial product or very dilute wood glue.

If the irregularity looks man made, then man unmake it. The problem is residue from stripping. You can test freshly sanded wood for residues by wiping it with a damp cloth.

In any case, if you stain maple dark all the fine grain will disappear. Water based stain will also give the wood a painted appearance. Oil (solvent) stain penetrates better and distributes evenly, but fails against resinous patches because it won't build up on the surface like water based stains do.

Thank you for the advice....I will give this a try and keep you posted. Many thanks...Mckinly1021