Stain... alcohol or water base ?

John_V · Post by **John_V** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 7:09 pm

I just finished shaping and sanding my first pipe. Now for the stain, I've seen here that alcohol base is recommended. Because I want to finish this one as soon as possible, I went to home depot and found water based stain. Is there a differance with this type of stain or can I use it as well ?

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 7:22 pm

No - it is not the same thing. Unless that stain is actually an aniline dye, it may contain stuff that, at the least tastes bad, and might even sicken you.

The "stain" that most pipemakers use is actually a dye. There are a couple different kinds, but aniline dyes are the most common.

Gatorade · Post by **Gatorade** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 9:08 pm

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 1:27 am

Some water-based stains contain stuff that *I* wouldn't put on pipes. Your mileage may vary though. Then again, I' scared to death of that kind of stuff, so maybe I'm the wrong guy to ask....

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 9:52 am

I have a can of MinWax "Water-Based Wood Stain" in front of me here that I last used to stain a windows seat I built for my wife. While it doesn't list ingredients (or carbohydrate/protein info

), but a good 15% of the entire label area is taken up with CAUTIONS and WARNINGS.

I used to know what was in these, in fact I had a binder about a decade ago in college (Architecture/Historc Preservation degree) with all the info on various types of paints and stains. Some of it ugly stuff, and certainly not stuff I'd want to heat up and place near my breathing parts.

Now, granted, it's been over a decade, and formulas may have changed since then - or my memory may have faded. I won't tell you not to use it, but I will say that you need to be careful and be positive of what you're using.