I've made a chess board/piece box thingie (pictures will go up somewhere once it's finished) out of of what used to be an unfinished pine table.
The wood is a bit knotty, and it was quite dirty, with some bad stains. I sanded off a lot of the grime, but I left some of it, and I didn't work at taking all of the old, yellowed surface layer off. I think the combination of light and dark makes for a nice sort of built from recycled crap rustic look.
The board is slated to be used while camping, in particular, so I didn't choose this project as a place to experiment with a "real" finish. I plasti-dipped the thing with three coats of good ol' Minwhacks Helmsman Spar Urethane, because I had some on hand.
I've used that stuff on maple walking sticks a lot, and I find that the places where I've left the cambium to oxidize have remained in contrast to the underlying wood pretty nicely over the years.
I'm wondering if I can expect the same on pine, or if the stuff will somehow yellow under the poly back to a uniform shade. This is of particular concern for the board itself, which I made using a cheap saw kerf and contrasting stain technique. The stain didn't take too well, and the dark isn't quite as dark as I wanted. It looks quite nice IMHO, but I'm concerned that the already somewhat low contrast between light and dark will worsen over time.
I can do something about that if it happens, certainly. I'm just curious as to whether I need to count on having to do so eventually.
I did seal everything top and bottom, inside and out, if that makes any difference.