Question
Has anyone fallen in love with a particular stain manufacturer? I have used M.L. Campbell and Sherwin-Williams and I am not impressed with either. I also do a lot of custom matching.
I like Guardsman, but Lilly bought them out so now it is Lilly. I've recently been using Akzo-Nobel; pretty good stuff, consistent where I'm at, and I get good tech help and service.
I also recently used CCI (Chemical Coatings Inc.). Their stain is pretty good also, and I got good tech help and service here, too. I've never used or seen M.L. Campbell anything, but have used Sherwin-Williams.
I think I would call one of the three companies above for some help, from my experience.
The Lilly stain line is an intermix system, allowing for something like 264 "distinct" stain colors.
Besides the package colors, they offer clear bases and pigments to alter the colors, or to start from scratch. What's nice with these stains and colorants is that all of them are the same ones used by Valspar in the production of their pre-mixed products. This way you're not adding a pigment that may not be acid tolerant, or may bleed when topcoated.
Some of the best feedback is that they don't "sweatback," and blotching is very minimal.
Custom stain mixing with utc's and p.t. is still the only way to go. If I have to use a pre-mixed stain, Minwax is the only one for me. It has depth and richness but takes longer to dry.
