Mrs. SewNSew

I'm using Varathane wood stain by Rustoleum. It says it's a soya oil based stain.

Mickey2

I don't know about Rustoleum or soy based stain. I have used Liberon acrylic and sprit based wood dyes, the spirit version works for all types of wood, but a must for penetrating hard wood. I wouldn't get too hung up on the brand I mentioned, it's just what I happened to find on the shelfs here. I'm just thinking out loud really. Is it oak, teak or something like that? If you poored a bit of paint thinner into your dye, it might penetrate better?

Rodney

Pretty much what Mickey2 said. If you're dealing with a closed pore wood like maple or cherry you'll need an aniline dye stain. Most hardware stores only carry pigment based stains. The Varathane stain you're using is going to be a pigment stain. They basically just sit on top of woods like maple instead of penetrating. Pigment stains are ok for open pore woods like oak but I've never had much luck with them on closed pore woods. You'll either need to find a good woodworking supply store in your area or order the dye online. I've had good luck with water based aniline dyes, alcohol based aniline dyes are good too.
Here's an explanation I found. http://www.woodfinishsupply.com/PLaniline.html
These people are also a trusted source of shellac flakes on the woodworking forums I belong to.
Rodney

Mrs. SewNSew

At this point I'm not wanting to change stains. This is my Singer 68 cabinet. I went through five different stains to find a good match for the existing color and with it already having a red stain there weren't a lot of options for change. It came to me missing a knob so I needed a really good match to bring it all together. The top is a maple veneer.

The directions on the can say I can use mineral spirit for clean up so I put some on a rag and went over the areas that were tacky to try and remove the excess stain that was not drying from my earlier mistake. I'll be checking it this morning to see what I'm dealing with today. *I have my fingers crossed that the tackiness is gone and I can move forward.

Mrs. SewNSew

Mineral Spirits didn't do much at all and giving it time to dry wasn't working either. I carefully used 220 grit and sanded off the tacky areas and then did a soft sanding over the full surface with a fresh sandpaper. I am back to where I was a few days ago now. I am going to try stain just in the lighter areas until I can bring it up even and then a light coat wiped over the full surface.

I'm happy that the sandpaper removed the tacky residue without causing more problems so hopefully I can move ahead from here.