Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Trouble with oil stain

We were trying to stain the wood of our stair handrail with pickling oil stain. Unfortunately it's not looking as good as we hoped so we're going to just paint it instead. The only problem we're having is that there are parts of it are still sticky. It's only been 12 hours...will this stickiness go away or is there something we need to do to get it off?

Also, only half of the stair was coated with this stain – the other half is still sanded and untouched. When we go to paint it, what kind of primer should we get, a water based or oil based? Is it okay to get the oil based to paint over the ugly stain and still use it on the parts we didn't get to?

By the time you read this the stickiness should have gone away. Many oil base stains take 24-36 hours to dry completely.

If it has not gone away, you're applying it to heavily. Stain is almost always a wipe it on wipe it off application - very little time between the two - minutes, not hours.

If you want to go to paint, go to a good paint store for their advice. I would suggest an oil primer and top coat for durability. Sherwin WIlliams and Benjamin Moore both offer good products.