Staining Birch - What's with the inconsistency?!

All exposed faces on a project need to be from the same panel or from sequential panels. If you’ve mixed up the parts from different panels, you may never get them consistent. The way the wood absorbs the stain depends on how the characteristics of that particular piece of veneer—and it varies from log to log and from slice to slice (or, if rotary cut, from bark to pith). Other than layering on more stain, and letting it soak in, or even dry on the surface, you’re not going to get them to match.

you’ve got alternatives—build the seats from matching panels, or make the differences in color part of the design, or go get more lumber and start over.

-- Murphy's Carpentry Corollary #3: Half of all boards cut to a specific length will be too short.

...and birch by nature tends to be very blotchy.

Your best bet in my opinion is to totally seal the wood (shellac, or poly), then use the stain as a toner (stain mixed with poly) and spray it on.

You still can get them darker but matching them to the others would be difficult. To me it looks like you forgot to apply the sealer on the good boards. Could it be true ? Also it could be that you sanded them differently the higher the grid is the less the wood takes stain.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I’m a little embarrassed to say it, but I ended up switching to a similar colored gel stain and it made ALL the difference. I knew I should have tried that sooner. You could say I have a tendency to have to learn things the hard way. I’m off to the races now.

I’ll post a pic this afternoon when I have a few assembled.

Thanks again.

-- Patrick | StolCO Designs

The blotch appearance to my way of thinking comes from the angle of the grain of he wood to the surface. End grain absorbs more stain than flat grain. Any waviness in the grain shows up as “blotchiness”. To control this, before staining, apply a very thinned out coat of clear sealant to seal the wood surface and keep it from absorbing the stain. I find thinned out shellac works best as it dries quickly and “chalks” when sanded and doesn’t clog the sandpaper very much. Burch can have a wavy grain as well as maple and both need to be sealed before staining if you want an even finish.

-- Always remember: It is a mathematical certainty that half the people in this country are below average in intelligence!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfCYMdrP8rM

-- Sam Hamory - The project is never finished until its "Finished"!