The window is stripped

I fully stripped the stained glass window shown in a previous post. I haven't stained it yet, though, because I didn't want to be distracted with painting or work, and I want to try to get a decent color match with my stairway. I ended up putting multiple coats of zip strip on it and scrubbing it down with 000stainless steel dipped in lacquer thinner. One day I will have to take the plunge and stain it, but I am afraid that there is paint in the pores that will end up making the wood blotchy. Also, the casing is oak, the window sash is pine (probably originally grained) and the cove moulding that bridges the two is a different, darker oak than the casing. I know that they will all take the stain differently, so I am thinking through how to proceed, given that I don't really have a good test area to practice on. I would appreciate any and all

advice.

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Comment by BenningtonColonial on August 31, 2010 at 4:10pm: I wonder why they would use oak for the trim and then paint it?

Comment by Phil on August 31, 2010 at 4:32pm: Actually it was originally shellac. Then it was painted over in the 1950s with a white lead paint, then again with latex in the 1990s. If you look at back a couple of posts ago on this blog, you will see a photo where I heat gunned it down to the shellac in one place. Paint removal was not so clean on the curved part of the profile, though, so I had to switch to chemical stripper.

Comment by BenningtonColonial on August 31, 2010 at 8:48pm: Was the old shellac coat as thin as it appears in the photo? That's unfortunate, if true; it made your job twice as difficult.

Comment by Phil on August 31, 2010 at 9:35pm: I don't have enough experience with shellac to know typical thickness. What I found most annoying was white the spackling and fillers used to fill cracks and gaps during one or both paint jobs. That is white but doesn't come off with the stripper. Some I dug out, but fearing damage, I have ceased that and will probably just use a little paint brush to darken that after regular staining.

Comment by BenningtonColonial on August 31, 2010 at 9:52pm: Yup. When the PO painted my daughter's room, they used white caulk to fill all of the imperfections. I spent hours with dental picks trying to get as much out as possible. It was originally shellacked, but between the finish being so thin and water damage from a leaky roof sometime in the past, it was very difficult to get the paint off cleanly. To make matters worse, there was only one coat of latex paint so that once loosened from the shellac, it was like gold leaf--it clung to everything with which it made contact. I was never so glad to be done with that stupid trim... BTW, love the stained glass, too. Very unique design.

Comment by Karan Andrea on September 12, 2010 at 12:07pm: Gorgeous window, and great stripping job! I had an oak front door that had been painted a lovely shade of green that is reserved for street signs in the real world.... I stripped it to it's natural wood and urethaned it. But before I could get to the urethane, I had to get all that green paint out of the large grain 'pores' in the oak. I used a dental tool and a brass brush (kind of looks like a toothbrush) to lift the tiny particles of paint out of the pores.
A couple things that are difficult to keep in perspective when you are doing work on this detailed level... first, no one ever going to inspect the window casing in as close detail as you do when you are working on it. Second, those little bits of paint, and the differences in woods are going to blend together when you stain it.
You are correct that the pine and oak will take stain differently. There are a few things you can do to get them to blend nicely. First, there is a stain 'primer' that is available for use on pine. It makes the pine absorb the stain more evenly. I've never used it myself, but I do know it's available. Since the pine is going to be side by side with the oak, it would be wise to use it in this application. Next, even though you don't have any actual test wood, you can get scraps of pine and oak from either a lumber supply or home store and experiment with the number of coats of stain that each type of wood requires to get a nicely blended look.
Keep in mind that the two woods are completely different grain types and have different underlying coloration, so the best you can hope for is a BLEND of the two woods. Again, no one will really notice as long as the woods blend and appear to have the same color stain applied to both.
Even if you do end up with little flecks of white in the final finish, again, no one is going to notice, and over time you won't either. As you strip and finish, you are sweating the details so that the 'big picture' looks great. From your photos, I think you are in good shape on the details and now you can start to be concerned about the big picture. Good luck!!!!