General FinishesWater Based Wood Stain, 1 Quart, Onyx

We have been using General Finishes Early American water-based wood stain for several years as we restore our 100+ year old house. We have loved it. GF lets old hardwood breathe. Instead of feeling like a watered down paint like so many cheaper brands out there, which can make wood look foggy and unnaturally uniform, GF enhances the qualities of real wood. Combined with the Eduro-Var water based urethane, it gives the wood in our house a soft, warm glow. We have loved working with it. We've tried a lot of brands and GF is really in a league of its own. Sadly, General Finishes has decided to try a "new oil/water formulation." The last three cans we have purchased are highlighting this fact on the label. It's awful. Not only does the Early American finish not match the color of previous cans on the exact same wood, it leaves the wood foggy and unnaturally uniform. We might as well pay half as much and use Verathane. We are not sure how to finish our bay window since the difference in quality and tonality is so striking. General Finishes decided to mess with a perfect product and they've really messed it up.

It’s fabulous.Don’t hesitate.Completely transformed my ‘weathered’ grey hardwood floor, easy to control, highly pigmented, customizable coverage, a beautiful white while still showing grain. A few ounces went a long way for my project and I used a thinned ‘lime wash’ effect then undiluted lines on vertical grain for variation. So happy I found this due to its well earned, great reviews. Old floors, 1890s redwood, take stain very unexpectedly, patchy. Steps: sand and clean/prep, Classic Grey all over to pull down red tones, wipe excess, let dry, 2nd coat Classic Grey every other board, let dry. Iron oxide ‘tea’ made from steel wool 0000 soaked in distilled white vinegar for 36 hours, strain and rag on (moist, not wet) - wait 24 hours, Apply General Finishes Whitewash with damp clean rag in small areas and wipe off excess within minutes, let dry. With gloved finger, using pressure, draw thin line variation with grain and pull off excess with dry shop towel. Let dry per instructions. Seal with Bona HD (this is a bathroom) or suitable clear water based Varathane twice in Matte or Satin finish.

I am a semi professional woodworker and have always used oil base stain. Thought I would try this water-based product since general finishes has such a good reputation and seems to promote water base. I will never use this again. It ruined a table that I made from Barnwood I had to sand off all the nice markings so I could reapply with real stain. If you follow the application instructions on the can, it dries too fast and you end up with a gummy mess. It dulls the appearance of the grain rather than make it pop. Another review says it’s a 5 star “wiping stain” but the instructions say not to wipe on. But that’s the only way to get it on without gumming up. If you are looking for a dull, flat, pale finish that reduces the grain contrast then this is the best choice. I suspect this applies to all water based stains however, I have no reason to waste more money to find out.

I got the water based Walnut Stain and I actually really like the color. Some other reviewers complained that Walnut was too Grey and didn’t look like traditional walnut stain. That’s exactly why I like it! I am using it on pine and didn’t want an overly warm color and it’s perfect for what I wanted. I did a test piece with one coat so far and no poly, and tried the water based Pre stain conditioner underneath on one side. The side with the pre stain conditioner didn’t take as much stain and the color came out a little lighter, which I actually also liked! The stain itself is much thicker than I was expecting for water based. It’s not watery at all but more like a thin gel. I wiped it off fairly quickly after putting it on, whereas with normal oil based stains I let it sit for a few minutes first. I think if you let this sit too long it starts to dry. Overall I like it and am very excited to use it on a barn door project.

I had light blonde cabinets and wanted to redo my bathroom so I started with the cabinets I am beyond happy with this product! I’m a diy woman and enjoyed doing this myself! The color came out exactly like I wanted. I wanted a weathered look and was able to achieve it!

I used General Finishes water-based products several years ago for a couple of projects and was very happy with the results. Recently I wanted to do another project but didn't think I had enough leftover stain to complete it. So, naturally, I thought I would simply order more of what I assumed to be identical stain. It turns out that many of the water-based dyes and stains were re-formulated in 2016 so the color palette as well as the viscosity of the product changed from earlier years. It's still a good product, but I did have to make some adjustments. Apparently, the water-based products will change again in April 2019. Lesson learned: do a test run with the current versions of dyes and stains before embarking on a large project.

Being a creative person that loves to paint, I've worked with multiple mediums and paint/stain 'platforms'. General Finishes makes an awesome product and this water-based stain was even better than I anticipated. The color was perfect...not too milky and not too much color. (A little goes a long way.) The consistency was thin and easy to work with which is typical for water-based stains; although gel-stain are my fave. I was using it as an overlay finish for a chalk-based paint to get the Restoration Hardware look and it was sheer perfection! Clean up was easy breezy since it's water-based...no mineral spirits or solvents (thankfully).

It took two coats of stain and then three of poly to get the Walnut color approximately where we expected it to be - but it's still quite a bit cooler than expected. The first coat looked actually grey, gave us quite a fright. It is not the warm rich walnut we expected, but we like it enough to outfit the rest of the bedroom furniture similarly.

This is neither oil-based nor a gel stain. It's a water-based stain. So at least the photo is accurate, but I was hoping for a water-based gel stain.

It is not a gel stain.It is a water base stain