General Finishes Water Based Wood Stain, 1 Quart, Walnut

Trust me, I am not very knowledgeable about staining and finishing wood, but this stuff really made me look good. I tried several products on the underside to see if they had that dark rich walnut color I wanted and this was the clear winner. Use it liberally and be patient, don’t try to do it all in one day. Use some good quality all cotton rags to wipe off the excess and whatever you do, don’t wait too long and let it dry! Get the excess off before it dries or you won’t like it. I put two coats on liberally and wiped as soon as I got to the other end. After a day of drying I used General finishes Satin Poly on it and the results made it look like I actually knew what I was doing. Great product. Will buy again and again. So glad they have it on Amazon because my Lowe’s and Home Depot didn’t.

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.

This review is for anyone researching how this stain will look on solid wood floors. I bought unfinished 5” #2 common red oak because I wanted to finish it myself. I put in the floors, spending countless hours sanding (with a floor buffer, the drywall sander didn’t work very fast), to finally be able to stain with water-based stain and finish with a half & half tung oil from milk paint. I wanted to add a review for someone who is researching this and make some suggestions. I had to have a water-based stain for the tung oil. Tung oil is a natural finish that nourishes it instead of covering it with a plastic layer (ahem polyurethane). I have nothing against polyurethane but if I wanted to walk barefoot on plastic I would have gone with the much easier, much cheaper option of luxury vinyl plank just saying. Actual Walnut was not an option. I did not have enough in my budget for that. I went with the cheap option that being red oak, however I am not overly fond of orange, yellow and red being in my floor. I wanted it to be like a medium to dark-ish brown. Thus the walnut stain. I tested out the stain on a few pieces of my wood floor and decided I liked it. I must say that I didn’t really care if it looked a lot like walnut. I was just wanting a deeper color. When I finally got to where I stained the whole floor, I initially wasn’t sure I liked it. It looked blotchy to me. I was almost to the point where I was going to sand it all off. However, I invited some family members who are known to give me their honest opinions. They told me I was being too particular and that they thought it looked good. I did use 240 grit and sanded lightly on the parts where I thought it was too dark. I am glad they did because it turned out great. Some things I suggest to future diy’ers. 1. Thin out the stain with water. This will give you more time between sections of the floor. 2. Stain with the grain of the wood from one wall to the other. I did this and it was the right choice. 3. DO NOT try to stain the edges first. I did this in the living room and I could see where it overlapped. I tried to both buff it out with more stain and then I sanded it with 240 grit. It did disguise it, but I will forever know. Major regret. 4. I suggest using a rag or a paintbrush. I tried using the paint roller for the stain. It did not work well getting into all the holes and cracks. It also did not apply an even coat. I and the person who helped me used a rag after that. 5. Remember it looks better with finish. I am using tung oil but the same can be said for polyurethane. All in all I am happy with the result. And it DOES look like walnut after it is has been finished.

I bought the "Walnut" water based variant. Not a stranger to staining but I've always used oil based. Couldn't find oil based walnut from G.F. either here or on the manufacturer website. All in all I hate this stuff, completely unforgiving and a nightmare to work with. You really have to saturate the piece because this stuff dries incredibly fast and any minor imperfection will stay there, even if it was only there for a couple seconds. As soon as you get this on wipe it off, even then it will probably be drying somewhere. The color is more akin to an ebony than walnut, looks identical to some ebony stain I already have.... even diluted with pre stain conditioner like suggested by the manufacturer is not even remotely a walnut shade. Don't know if the manufacturer is mixing labels with the wrong cans or they're just colorblind. The picture I included shows their walnut, thinned, on a piece of rubberwood, a very light wood, next to an actual piece of black walnut, and also the can where you can see the swatch, which is completely different from the finished product at any intensity. In the end I just trashed it and went and got some oil based minwax from a local hardware store with stellar results. Also, I have no clue why this is so expensive. F*** me I guess....

The stain was great but it was just too dark for the walnut wood I had to match.

I used this on two different projects. The first was an outdoor cedar table. I know most people do not stain cedar, but I wanted to use a wood that was durable when exposed to outside elements and my wife wanted a dark stain table top. The second project was a crafting table for my wife. A picture is included. The top of this table was made of plywood with poplar veneer and polar edging. The product is great to work with. It took several coats on each project to get a consistent color. I applied each coat by brushing on with foam brush and wiping excess with a rag. I also used general finishes Exterior 450 Water Based Clear Varnish "Satin" for both products. As you can see, I am a big fan on general finishes products. I have also used General Finishes Java Gel for products. Their gel stains are much thicker than their water based stain. Both were good to work with.

I ordered 2 but only received one. Waiting on the other quart so that I can finish. Product is great and easy to use

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.