Wood stain saga

What we have here is "Dark Oak Worktop Nick and Cut Colour Treatment"

Over a year ago we had a kitchen fitted that we ordered from Wickes. The worktops are solid oak, and a very nice dark oak colour. I liked the overall effect and so decided to go with the same for my man cave. Fortunately the kitchen fitter left a box of this "nick and cut treatment" and oil for treating the wood. There were five pots of this, and it worked to stain the worktops and doors in the man cave rather nicely.

Now, it is slightly confusing, this is the "Nick and cut" treatment, but it is the same as the main wood stain used. It covers very well, so a small pot of this goes a long way. It is a tad tedious as it is 72 hours for the stain to cure, and then two coats of the oil on top, but the result is really very very good, and looks nice too. The kitchen worktops still look great a year later!

Unfortunately the wood stain did not quite go far enough in the man cave, largely because of the changes to the shelves. So, simple matter of getting some more. But it was far from simple. The only instance I could find on-line was someone ebaying some pots lefts after his own kitchen installation (auction over). I imagine there are thousands of bottles of this stuff under kitchen sinks, but you cannot buy it anywhere.

So I got the decorator on the case... Here is rough idea of the saga that actually went on for weeks.

• Ask Wickes, and told it was the installer that sorts that
• Contacted original installer, and told he was given it by Wickes
• Talk to Wickes again and told it comes from worktop manufacturer
• Eventually get details and contact worktop manufacturer, who were not keen to talk to us
• Get samples of other wood staines - not even close
• Get even more samples of other wood staines - closer, but not good enough match
• After some effort get answers from worktop supplier -  told they stopped supplying Wickes three years ago
• Back to Wickes who think it is a different work top supplier now
• Contact them, and they have details of the stuff and say should be able to buy from Wickes, they cannot supply direct
• Wickes eventually find product code for this, £18 a pot, and have to order from their warehouse, but system comes up as over £500 (whole worktop pricing).
• Eventually confirm with warehouse it is product code database issue, and needs the data cleaning
• This takes ages, and involves someone being on holiday, but when back finally, able to order at right price
• £15 delivery charge on an £18 pot, which is crazy as just a small parcel force delivery, but eventually arrives
• Worktop supplier not impressed with the run-around we are getting from Wickes but cannot supply us direct.

So, finally, we have it and can finish the wood stain in the man cave.

Well done Steve (decorator) chasing this over and over again, spending hours in Wickes and on phone calls.

What is good though is this really is rather good wood stain - the various samples of different makes and colours we tried while sorting this are nowhere near as nice. Well worth the wait.