I am not sure.. I have never used gel stain but looked at it and was curious... I think your best bet would be to look at Min Wax web site, they have quite a bit of information there that might help you... let us know what you find out..
Debbie

Yes and no ... it covers it, but the filler will have a different texture and will be visible from some angles.

ADDING: It has to be a "stainable" filler.

This post was edited by lazygardens on Thu, Dec 13, 12 at 7:53

I would not use the minwax gel stain (sorry dbfirewife) to do this job. The General Finish brand works wonderfully. Have you seen Celticmoon's detailed instructions? You can find them over on Kitchen forum under Sticky or under New to Kitchens thread.

I have also found that the Old Masters brand works great too.

Not exactly sure what would happen with the filler, but will you be putting in new hardware? Would the old hole be covered by the new hardware (ie, a handle that spans across the place where the hole for the old knob was?) If so, I'm sure it will do a very good job so you don't even notice the old hole.

My biggest piece of advice is--you must let it dry completely between coats. Absolutely no "almost dry" . And depending on the look you are going for, you can just use the gel stain as a paint, and you don't have to wipe it off, just let it dry. The first coat or two will not be what you are looking for, don't despair, keep going.

I second Bee about the General Finishes. Minwax will not take multiple coats, the second coat dissolves the first coat. I have used it to antique furniture and touch up wood trim but it won't work well on cabinets.

As for the wood filler, I'd pick up an old cabinet from a Habitat or another second hand store or CL and test it out first. You may want to design around that issue and use handles instead.

Thanks all; I'm hoping celticmoon will see this. No way would I use Minwax stain.

Hey.. no need to apologize... don't know a thing about it...I'm glad to hear other opinions about it, good to know. I think everyone comes here for honest opinions...

I love GF products. I have tried both water based than Gel for our wood doors project. Either way is ok. With Gell you have a little more time to wipe it off. GF has a wonderful Customer Service. You call them and you can ask tons of questions. I would not use Minwax ever again.

i added some unfinished cabinets to my existing vanity. i used General Finishes gel stain and you cannot tell the difference between the old vanity and new cabinets. Perfect. You MUST let it dry between coats as other posters have said. I've used it on a few projects. It is the best for restaining builder grade cabinets as you can use it on the real wood part as well as all of the cheap junk they use when building them.

I've use GF too and really liked it, but I don't think it will cover a patch quite like it covers the real wood. I have had this as a problem and after everything was dry, I used a liner brush and the GF and "painted" the patch to match the rest. You can still tell if you know where the patch is, but it worked well.

Diane