Gel Stains and Gel Varnishes are an excellent solution to hand applied finishing requirements.  They are simple to use and minimize the effects of blotching on many difficult woods.

For many years Wood Essence has offered the Bartley Gel Stains and Gel Varnishes.  However, since the 2010 bankruptcy of the Lawrence McFadden Company that produced these products on behalf of Bartley Collection, the materials have not been available. 

The new owner of the Bartley formulas, Seagrave Coatings has indicated that they will produce the line of products, but we have not yet been able to obtain any inventory.

We have since decided to offer the General Finishes line of Gel stains and topcoats for our customers.  We are very confident that you will find the quality and results from the General Finishes materials every bit as good as our previous supply.

Beautiful tones can be achieved by staining with one color of gel stain, allowing it to dry for six hours, and then overstaining with a different color.  Because Gel Stains are semi—transparent, the overstaining creates a different look than had the same colors been mixed in a can and then applied.

Gel stains also produce fantastic results when used in combination with ColorFX Dye Stains.  Very easy to produce, deep, even tones are generated when dying the wood surface and then follow with an application of a matching (even contrasting) gel stain.

A simple "Espresso" finish is developed by using the ColorFX Vandyke Brown dye, followed by General Finishes Java Gel stain.

The final protective finish is a simple wipe-on application of Gel Topcoat Urethane.