I know, weird question. Stain gets absorbed into what it's brushed onto, but I doubt some rocks would absorb stain.

Has anyone tried using a solid stain on rocks/boulders?

What kind of rock? What type of surface? What type of stain? The type will make a big difference.

Well, my patio has a stain of sorts I’m planning to brush onto it this summer… it’s more of a gloss, though, kind of darkening it to bring out the individual colors of the stone pavers? Does this help?

Any porous stone (faux or natural) like concrete or limestone will easily take stain. Lots of harder stones like granite or metamorphic stone gneiss can be stained with acidic mixtures. The hardest stones to stain are likely glassy minerals with extremely tight matrixes like quartz or obsidian.

Thanks guys. I'm asking for a friend...really

She mentioned obsidian being part of the mix. This involves a stucco exterior that has a rock blend in it.

I suggested stain over paint, but maybe stain isn't great for this application.

There are stains made specifically for brick. I had looked into this last summer for the brick facade in front of my daughter's house. Ran out of time last summer to do the job.

“ Will solid stain stick to rocks?”

Only if you don’t want it to.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
“ Will solid stain stick to rocks?”

Only if you don’t want it to.

LOL just going to post, find some rocks in the garden or house you don't want stained, drop some on it and it's never coming off,

Of course the opposite is true of something you want stained...

We had some faux finish done once. They used a lime additive for adhesion to stone. Perhaps that in your stain would work. I’d try it on a practice surface first though.

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
Thanks guys. I'm asking for a friend...really

She mentioned obsidian being part of the mix. This involves a stucco exterior that has a rock blend in it.

I suggested stain over paint, but maybe stain isn't great for this application.

Whatever you decide on, I'd recommend doing a very small area as a test. Keying here on the 'part of the mix' in the above here - if you have different rocks, the absorption may well be different for each. You might like that look....or you might not. The question you didn't ask is 'How easy would it be to remove stain from rocks?' I don't know the answer to that question, but you might want to find that out, too.