Expert: Eileen Cronk - 4/27/2007

Question
QUESTION: Hi there, I'm unsure if you will be able to answer my question without seeing my problem ( I could e-mail you a picture if need be)We built our home 3 years ago and my husband buit beautiful birch kitchen cupboards which I stained Minwax golden oak and then applied 3 coats of Flecto Diamond wood finish. I noticed shortly after a couple streaks of what looked like grease or wet marks running down one of my lower cupboards. It wouldn't come off when wiped, it appears to be under the varnish. I stripped the door and refinished again, but now that door plus 3 others have these marks again. It almost seems as if something splashed on them and has penetrated through the finish.Like I said it's only on the bottom cupboards not the top.Someone has also mentioned that it looks like sap coming out of the wood and being trapped behind the varnish. At this point I thought I might just strip them and do paint and glaze, but then I read your reply to so many people telling them that would need to be repeated every 2-3 years. Yikes...Would a varnish on top of the glaze help it to last longer? Sorry to be so long winded I just really want to figure out what's going on with my cupboards. Thanks Alot
ANSWER: Hi Angel
Nice to hear from you.
Very strange thing here.
My thoughts when I read this went back a few years ago to an incident that happened to my neighbor who is a fine craftsman and built his own cupboards.
He carried some of the doors from his shop to the kitchen when it was raining. Of course they got rain drops that ran down the surface..not a lot of drops as it was a light rain and he figured it would not hurt as long as the wood dried before finishing.
Well low and behold after applying a great finish over several days, he had these mysterious marks running down his cupboards.
I never would have imagined this could happen but it did.
Now my question to you is..Is there any way water was dripped on the wood?
I discount sap being the problem, because I'm sure your hubby used well seasoned wood for starters, and even on birch not seasoned I have never had sap come out of it.
We cut and I use a lot of birch from our property so I am familiar with birch.
What I would do at this point is try to correct this (one more time) before resorting to a glaze.
Stripping, sanding and restaining is the only way.
Another thought...could it be glue drips?.
An inferior wood glue can cause this too.
I would like to hear back from you.
Kindest Regards
Eileen

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi there again, well I decided to strip the the Varathane off once more to try to keep my wood cupboardsinstead of painting, and once again with paint and varnish stripper the marks are gone.The wood looks perfect again. Someone has since told me that wood has natural oil that can bleed through,and maybe the water based varathane that I'm using may not be able to seal the oil in. Could that be it? But if so you would think that the oil based minwax stain would have sealed it. I think I'm going try simply putting some tung oil over the minwax golden oak stain this time to see if that will work better? What do you think? And no the wood was not ever exposed to water or rain. Thanks again for your time.

Answer
Hi again Angel
Its a possibility that its some reaction of the water based top coat but I have done the same thing numerous times with good results.
I know for certain that cedar and pine will bleed oil through a finish, but birch just does not have this oil because its a hardwood.
Give the tung oil a try. Its oil based as you know. This could solve this dilemma.
PLEASE let me know.
Kindest Regards
Eileen