Hello all;
We've just installed an entire wall of kitchen cabinets in knotty pine (couldn't find any other type of pine, and hardwood prices are out of this world).
When you look at it from the corner of your eye, it feels like the wall is covered with a giant leopard skin. NOT the look we were after.
Is there a way to mask SOME of the knots before we varnish the whole thing in natural or honey-pine finish?
Thanks.
LD
That's why they call it KNOTTY pine. WTF did you use knotty pine for if it's knot what you wanted. I understand not being able to readily find other material locally but you could have oredred it from SOMEWHERE. Didn't you look at it before it was installed?
Actually, the number and size of knots differs in the wood often found today than it was 50 years ago on older growth trees.
Not quite true. The trees haven't changed - what we are willing to settle for has. As long as they send the good lumber overseas to people who won't settle for crap, we'll continue to get the leftovers here.
Bob S.
More true than not true. The cheap and easy old-growth stuff has been largely cut down here in the lower 48, and you now have to haul it from Canada, and eventually, Siberia, once they get their act together. The old-growth that is left is largely in areas that aren't easily loggable, and/or protected from logging. Try buying clear-grain pine for trim sometime. (Forget about redwood). All you'll find is finger-joint, unless cash is no object. I could cry thinking about all the 3-4 foot scraps that I threw on the burn pile as a kid. Who knew? Any more, I would squirrel those away for window and cabinet trim repairs. Increased durability isn't the only reason that faux wood made from sawdust and pop bottles has caught on for trim work- real wood good enough to not warp in a year has gotten damn expensive.
I visited northern Europe last year, on the edge of the former USSR, and positively drooled over the truckloads of lumber I saw heading into the pallet and crate plants. Due to lack of a functioning market system, a lot of their forests basically have lain fallow for 50+ years, and weren't heavily logged before that. Their equivilant of a 2x10, a little thicker and wider because of metric, is some damn nice looking lumber. I'd love to get a couple seatrain boxes worth over here for household projects. T&G interior paneling is dirt-common, and has almost no knots. They usually let it go naked, or at most, put a clear sealer on it.
aem sends....
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