I recently stained some homemade wooden buttons for my wife. The buttons were bade from poplar wooden dowels sliced to 2-3mm thickness. Some quick light sanding was done to each button. I then used some Varathane Classic Penetrating Wood Stain.
The stain seemed to take rather nicely, but now I have the problem of the smell. My wife says they smell like gasoline. Since they are going to be used on clothing items, they can't smell. So, I then took a heat gun to them to try to dry them out a bit more. That seemed to help some. I don't have any other ideas, other than wait for the smell to go away. Can I apply a finish coating or something to seal in the smell? Any suggestions?
Edit/Update: I placed them out on the back porch in the sun to try to get them to fully dry. Hopefully the smell will go away soon.
Best Answer
Once the stain is totally dry the smell will be gone a coat of varnish will make the buttons look better but the stain needs to be dry prior to applying the varnish.