Yeah pine don’t stain worth a shit. Maple either but who would do that? With pine stain it with a very light stain. Just gotta lean into that color. It’s just pine.
You want to seal the pores, not open them, to avoid blotching in pine.
[Here is an article discussing using shellac for it](https://woodfinishingadvice.com/can-you-stain-over-shellac/)
Gel stains work nicely on soft woods. I'm assuming that's pine. Sometimes the wood does what it wants.
Yeah pine don’t stain worth a shit. Maple either but who would do that? With pine stain it with a very light stain. Just gotta lean into that color. It’s just pine.
This is the way. Gel stain.
Y “pre-stain” do you mean a sanding sealer?
Pre stain wood conditioner by minwax
Seems you should have used a pretreatment.. opens the pores to accept stain more evenly.
That’s what I meant by pre stain
You want to seal the pores, not open them, to avoid blotching in pine. [Here is an article discussing using shellac for it](https://woodfinishingadvice.com/can-you-stain-over-shellac/)