I have 2 questions.

1. I had some furniture made that has a "Cordova" stain, a very dark
reddish, purplish brown.

Alot of commercial finishes are heavily pigmented (opaque color, more like
paint than what you would normally think of as stain) Although this obscures
the wood, it lets the manufacturer produce a very evenly colored surface.

I haven't been able to replicate that color
with the stains I've been able to find.

That is smply not an easy thing to do. The good news is that you have you
have already learned rule #1..."experiment on scrap".

I think it's possible that I
need to leave the stain on longer to get a darker color, but I'm not
sure.

Generally not. more time will not make much difference. As you have
dicovered, not removing the excess will give you a darker result. A second
coat, if the stain is largely pigment based will help as well.


The instructions suggested maybe 10 minutes. The color with the
excess stain sitting on the wood seems pretty good, but wiping off the
"excess" leaves a much milder color. I beilieve the stain is called
Minwax Red Mahogany. I don't expect to perfectly match the other
furniture, but I'd like a very dark color.

2. I did a few test pieces with various stains and finishes. With
different products, different woods and different brushes I've gotten
"bubbles". They form immediately as I brush the polyurethane on, and
seem to continue forming over the space of a few minutes. They are
pretty tiny, a 16th of an inch in diameter, but they ruin the finish.
Is this a known problem? Is it air, or something else escaping from
the wood?


I don't know if this is the with you, but exactly that happened to me when
finishing some solid red oak with an oil-based varnish (very similar to
oil-based poly for the purposes of this discusstion). I made the mistake of
finishing the piece in a cold garage and them bringing it into the house to
warm up and cure. The air in the pores of the oak expanded and created tiny
bubbles.

Was there a drastic temperature change?

Was this oil or waterbased Poly? Water-based can tend to "foam up" is you
work it too much with a brush.

-Steve


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