Finishing a Staircase

[Samantha Booth]

As you are aware, some of you, I have stripped a staircase of its paint. The wood is new pine at only 7 years old. Ideally I would really like to put an oil stain as the finish. I don't want to wax it really as its too much maintenance. I just want to be able to recoat it with oil every so often lol. As my steroids are kicking in this week I feel up to doing it so any advice would be appreciated, as would any suggestions to the type of oil stain to use,

Thanks again you guys

Sam

[Roberts]

Nice to know you are still working - my thoughts are with you.

Alan

[Samantha Booth]

Thanks Alan.

I do it when I can when I have the 5 days of steroids after the chemo it gives me a buz to get things done, then I am asleep for another 2 weeks lol. You godda laugh

[Tim S]

'scuse wrong quoting...

I used a couple of wipes of danish oil on some yellow pine shelves and they came up a treat. Enough coating without looking like varnish.

*However* I did sand them smooth first.

If your wood was in any way rough, it would both probably take up too much oil and look patchy, and you'd get spiky bits as the polymers gave strength to the rough bits.

If your wood is smooth - the net effect might be a little darker and a mild sheen to the wood. Best to do a test on a small patch that's out of sight.

If you do use danish (or similar), couple of things I learnt the hard way:

It's smelly, but OK with windows open. Oil soaked rags get hot as they cure, so throw them outside on the ground, not in a bundle in the bin - they have been known to catch fire spontaneously. Also, don't wash the rags in the machine - it'll stink for months.

HTH

Tim

[Appelation Controlee]

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What about Tung Oil, or does that come under "or similar"? I used it on a plain wood guitar body a while ago, and it was absorbed fairly easily, and with minimal fuming and next-to-no surface tack.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd say a spirit stain followed by a suitable clear varnish will give about the same result - with no regular maintenance. Things like spindles aren't really going to show what type of wood they're made of anyway if stained properly - unlike things with a large surface area.

[meow2222]

Imho staining pine is not a great option.

1. It colours up well all on its own, gradually, once exposed to the light
2. Softwood stairs do tend to get ding marks, which show up light on a dark stained background - and this looks really bad
3. Naturally mellowed pine looks better than mellowed stained pine.

NT

[Stuart Noble]

Can't really beat Vandyke Crystals for a natural colour on softwood IMO. A 1% solution is normally plenty strong enough. I'd think about an acrylic varnish applied with a rag. Not a great fan of water based finishes but at least they don't yellow with age.