To test the quality of a stain you can do a “scratch test”. Try scratching an obscure part of a stained piece of wood with your fingernail or a sharp edge. With a cheap stain, the stained color will scrape off. A quality stain will penetrate the wood making the color stain through the layers. The quality stain is worth paying a higher price because it will not just chip away with every bump or hail storm. We recommend purchasing stains from Sherwin Williams for their quality guarantees. This was the tip of the day from your RC Painters, Colorado Springs.