Stain or Oil first

[German_canoe]

Quick question,
I have to replace some of the Ash ribs, but i guess the colour will not match.
I would like to Stain it to match,

What is the order :

Stain, Linsed oil, Shellac, the varnish done ?

or can I Linsed oil first and then Stain ?

Thanks

 

[Adirondack1]

If you're trying to match color, makes sense to do the staining first. Stain soaks into the wood, if you oil first, that would limit any significant change you can achieve with stain. Staining is usually trial-n-error. Minwax for instance has many different shades, so its best to experiment on a scrap piece before you do the real thing...

 

[Howie]

I've found that new vs old wood will change color quite differently when varnishing. I can stain new wood (white cedar ribs in my case) to be quite a good match to unvarnished old wood, but once the ribs are in place and I start to varnish the old wood darkens much more than the new, leaving me wonder why I made such an effort to match color in the first place. So now I make a rough attempt to match colors but staining the new wood to be just a bit darker. Then after the first coat of varnish is dry I add some oil based stain to a little varnish and touch up just the new wood. Once it looks acceptable I then complete varnishing the whole canoe.

 

[German_canoe]

I oiled the part of the canoe which is good after I bleached the wood to get rid of the black spots.
Worked pretty well, so far the linsed oil really made the wood very dark.

Howie, I agree.
That is the tricky part I guess that the varnish + oil will even more darken the wood and might give an unknown result.
So the best to do is probably to match the wood with staining and then oil, I would guess I gets only darker from the oil ?
thanks

 

[crosscuts]

Stain match to old wood

To reduce the unknowns varnish the old wood leaving the new ribs and planking raw. This way it is easier to apply stain to match the known darker shade of the old wood. Once the stain is matched the whole interior can get a coat if varnish.

R.C.