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It's a wrap! General Finishes next round of tutorial videos are on their way! We will be releasing one per week for the month of November so stay tuned.

While Gel Stain can be applied over an existing finish, it was originally engineered for raw wood surfaces. We prefer applying the Gel Stain over a slip coat of mineral spirits instead of topcoat as shown in this video, "How to Apply Gel Stain to Raw Wood"

ANSWER:

It depends! Read on, or watch this GF video demonstration: http://youtu.be/torOAQy91q4

*Here are the main questions to ask yourself:

Yes. All stains need a top coat. Think of stain as the color and top coat as the sealer and protectant. Discover the best topcoat for your gel stain.

In this video, Tom and Sheryl Monahan of General Finishes show how to refresh existing oak cabinets with General Finishes Brown Mahogany

General Finishes offers a complete line of oil based, water based and wax products. Application techniques differ between oil based products and water based products.

In our newest video, Chris Adams and Tom Monohan of General Finishes show you how to apply GF Waterbased Topcoat to a bench. 

GF advises extra care and prep when applying any finish over laminate surfaces because they are specifically designed not to mar and therefore they are not very "sand-able", making adherence difficult.

In addition to this non-permeable surface factor, General Finishes Gel Stain is an oil-based product, and it is more difficult to obtain proper drying characteristics over a dense manufactured surface such as laminate. Gel stains, as all wood stains, were formulated to go over raw wood which has an "open" surface and can absorb some of the stain.

General Finishes is excited to show off some our new products of 2015.

Gel Stain gets its deep rich hue from a large amount of colorants. Seal the stain with a topcoat before applying glaze to prevent "color pull" when applying glaze.

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