Pine wood stain question

I've an old cottage with old natural pine doors which have all mellowed over a lot of years to that soft honey type colour. The back hall (I resisted saying 'back passage') has been totally stripped, replastered, etc and now needs skirtings, facings, etc. which I would like to have a reasonable match with existing doors.

I recently was staying in a hostel up north and the timber colour in the shower area was exactly what I wanted. The wood was remarkably free of knots so was not redwood. Was it likely to be good quality white wood stained ? - with what and what would the matt finish likely to have been as it was totally free of dust trapment and runs that I always associate with polurathane varnish.

Rob

Reply to
robkgraham
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There are grades of redwood that have very few knots, but it's not something you will find in your average timber merchant. Hemlock is pine coloured without knots. Pricey though. They might even have used cedar in a shower room

Softwoods generally darken and go orangey with time. A bit warmer than honey I'd say. If you apply polyurethane sparingly with a rag (2-3 coats) you get a uniform satin look rather than the garish finish you get following the instructions.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

instructions.

I have stained clear(sih) pine skirting boards with Rustin's Stain, and the result was OK. I finished witha coloured wax, though I doubt that's a good idea in a shower. The stain is taken up differentially by the pine in certain areas, but using a light ( antique pine ) stain the effect was not too noticeable ( except on one piece of wood which simply would not accept stain in about three areas ). The worst problem you will encounter is if you try and stain a pine sphere, like a Newel post ball on a bannister - that entails staining every aspect of grain possible, and the end grain will soak up stain and turn dark. The other slight problem area is around knots or near misses of knots, where a slight butterfly pattern is visible as the grain changes direction around the knot. Finally, make sure the surface is uniformly smooh before staining, otherwise roughened areas will preferentially take up stain.

Andy.

Reply to
andrewpreece

In message , snipped-for-privacy@lineone.net writes

Oh gawd, don't remind of my battles to get a reasonable honey pine colour. Somewhere I still have 20 odd "sample" sticks I did with numerous combinations of products to get the right effect. I was restricting my self to the "quick dry" water based stains, as with several doors to do polys would be way too time consuming.

Anyway, I found most "antique pine" products came out far too orange or brown if used direct, plus of course variability due to grain patterns etc. Plus the quick dry can be a draw back, on something large like a panelled door, even trying to keep a wet edge going easily leads to problems and patchiness as areas overlap.

So the key I found is to seal the surface first with a clear QD satin or matt product, then apply a very light coat coloured QD stain / varnish, seal with another coat or two of clear. The act of sealing the wood first enables almost a colour wash to be done, and slows the drying (absorbing) of the coloured stain so a good wet edge can be maintained, and eliminates grain variability from equation.

My product of choice _was_ a Ronseal (I think) QD Antique Pine, which is unfortunately, as best I can find, no longer available. The nearest ant-pine I subsequently found is a bit too brown, so I've lost some of the honey "glow" I originally had.

I did try the coloron spirit dyes. Worked OK on a nice slab of redwood for a window sill, but was a disaster on a batch of skirting. I'd selected about 16m of almost knot free pine, but some patches of very absorbent grain screwed it all up. So that lot was scrapped.

Reply to
Steven Briggs

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