Are these two wood stains comparable?

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danepak

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#318159 21-Dec-2024 23:18

Four years ago I painted my fence with the Resene Waterborne Woodsman with the Pitch Black colour.
I need to paint additional fencing now which has been built and I can see that Mitre 10 has a black wood stain which to me looks similar, but significantly cheaper (I need 4 litres).

But as my knowledge of wood stain is quite small, I thought I would ask in here.

https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/aquamax-water-based-linseed-oil-timber-stain-4l-black-coal/p/189051

https://shop.resene.co.nz/resene-waterborne-woodsman

larknz

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#3323136 22-Dec-2024 06:36

Four years of fading on the original means that no matter what you use they won't match.

danepak

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#3323139 22-Dec-2024 07:09

larknz:
Four years of fading on the original means that no matter what you use they won't match.

Thanks. But are they the same type of paint?

danepak

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#3323143 22-Dec-2024 07:20

I wrote ‘paint the fence’. I meant ‘stain’.

eracode

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#3323145 22-Dec-2024 07:24

danepak: Four years ago I painted my fence with the Resene Waterborne Woodsman with the Pitch Black colour.
I need to paint additional fencing now which has been built and I can see that Mitre 10 has a black wood stain which to me looks similar, but significantly cheaper (I need 4 litres).

But as my knowledge of wood stain is quite small, I thought I would ask in here.

https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/aquamax-water-based-linseed-oil-timber-stain-4l-black-coal/p/189051

https://shop.resene.co.nz/resene-waterborne-woodsman

If you read the descriptions, clearly both are waterborne. As indicated in its webpage name, Aquamax says:

"This timber stain is applied as a water based product, but when the water evaporates, linseed oil is released to be absorbed into the timber ... "

The Resene page says it's a "... is a waterborne woodstain ..." and its Datasheet says it's an "Oil-modified acrylic" - whatever that means.

So maybe they're fairly similar. However as @larknz says, you are unlikely to get a match - if that's what you are looking for.

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danepak

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#3323148 22-Dec-2024 07:45

Thanks.
Doesn’t have to be a 100% match.
I wasn’t sure if waterborne and water based was the same, but you’ve confirmed this.
Much appreciated.

eracode

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#3323149 22-Dec-2024 07:45

danepak: Thanks.
Doesn’t have to be a 100% match.
I wasn’t sure if waterborne and water based was the same, but you’ve confirmed this.
Much appreciated.

If you Google 'Aquamax', it seems to be a NZ brand/product - sold by ~~Bunnings and~~ M10 - does not appear to be an international brand. It's possible that it's made for them by Resene and rebadged - in which case it could be the same product.

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Bung

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#3323154 22-Dec-2024 09:10

eracode:

If you Google 'Aquamax'

You find that it is made by Agrippa Paints Limited in Hornby Christchurch.

Unless money was really tight id buy the 10l bucket @ $88

k1w1k1d

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#3323161 22-Dec-2024 09:43

I know that the Resene is twice the price, but I would personally use the original stain. Any new stain will look different when first applied but after a year or two should hopefully weather to the same colour. A different stain may weather to a completely different look and be very noticeable.

We have painted our fences and pergolas with Aqualin by Agrippa and you can't notice any difference between the differently aged sections.

ComplexPraline5336

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#3333904 20-Jan-2025 21:19

I’m a bit late posting a response, but in case anyone needs this in the future: yes and no, the answer is “sort of”.

They are both waterbourne stains, which basically means that they have oils and stains “floating” in water (it’s called emulsion). So when you apply them to your fence, both work the same way in a sense that first the water dries off, then oils will continue going a little bit deeper into the timber, whilst stains remain “stuck” on the surface (stain polymers are quite “chunky” molecules that don’t fit into timber, whereas oils are smaller and can go a bit deeper).

But! The big difference is that Aquamax uses linseed oil, whereas Woodsman is oil-modified acrylic.

Problem with linseed oil is, it’s high in organic content, which will provide ferticle ground for mould and fungus to establish themselves on your fence. To counteract this, paint companies put fungicides in their products, but the effect wears off after a while. Stained black, you probably won’t see much evidence of this on your fence because mould is also black, but with transparent products it becomes visible within a couple of months that there is a dark grey discoloration happening on timber when linseed oil is used - mould.

Woodsman also has fungicides added in, but at least their oil itself is not suitable “feed” for mould and fungus.

So that’s the big difference - one uses linseed oil (vegetable oil) as a driver, the other uses a petrochemical. But both are waterbourne, meaning oils are suspended in water when you apply them.

danepak

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#3333906 20-Jan-2025 21:24

ComplexPraline5336: I’m a bit late posting a response, but in case anyone needs this in the future: yes and no, the answer is “sort of”.

They are both waterbourne stains, which basically means that they have oils and stains “floating” in water (it’s called emulsion). So when you apply them to your fence, both work the same way in a sense that first the water dries off, then oils will continue going a little bit deeper into the timber, whilst stains remain “stuck” on the surface (stain polymers are quite “chunky” molecules that don’t fit into timber, whereas oils are smaller and can go a bit deeper).

But! The big difference is that Aquamax uses linseed oil, whereas Woodsman is oil-modified acrylic.

Problem with linseed oil is, it’s high in organic content, which will provide ferticle ground for mould and fungus to establish themselves on your fence. To counteract this, paint companies put fungicides in their products, but the effect wears off after a while. Stained black, you probably won’t see much evidence of this on your fence because mould is also black, but with transparent products it becomes visible within a couple of months that there is a dark grey discoloration happening on timber when linseed oil is used - mould.

Woodsman also has fungicides added in, but at least their oil itself is not suitable “feed” for mould and fungus.

So that’s the big difference - one uses linseed oil (vegetable oil) as a driver, the other uses a petrochemical. But both are waterbourne, meaning oils are suspended in water when you apply them.

Thanks 🙂

I ended up staining the fence and although it doesn’t look 100% like the other paint, I’m
happy with the result. Unless you already knew, you wouldn’t notice a difference.
Will be interesting to see how it looks in a couple of years time.

ComplexPraline5336

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#3333907 20-Jan-2025 21:27

danepak: I wasn’t sure if waterborne and water based was the same, but you’ve confirmed this.

Technically, they’re NOT the same. But! So many people use these terms interchangably that it’s likely they’re actually talking about the same thing.

Most people that say “this paint is water-based”, actually mean waterBORNE. It means that oils and stains and resins and whatever are “floating” in water (it’s called emulsion), so when you paint with them, first the water dries off, and then oils/resins/whatever dry off. Once dry, you CANNOT dissolve it again with water. (Otherwise every time you splashed water on the kitchen wall, the paint would come off).

True waterbased paints are the ones you can dissolve with water - like watercolours on a piece of paper. If you splash water on, it starts spreading again.

But for construction paints they’re always waterborne paints - it’s just people keep using the term “waterbased” even though it’s NOT actually correct.

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ComplexPraline5336

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#3333909 20-Jan-2025 21:34

Thanks 🙂

I ended up staining the fence and although it doesn’t look 100% like the other paint, I’m
happy with the result. Unless you already knew, you wouldn’t notice a difference.
Will be interesting to see how it looks in a couple of years time.

Both of these stains are designed to “weather off” in a couple of years. The surface stain basically “sheds” itself off from the surface whist the oil remains inside the timber, keeping it from drying out. At which point you clean the fence again and apply new penetrating oil stain.

As long as you keep using penetrating oil stains (ie waterborne stains that have oil added in) you should be fine even though they may not be exactly the same product. However the mould that will have established itself on the linseed - if it does - will not be killed off with a new stain, so those dark patches will always remain there, unless you sand them off.