What is the cheapest wood that can be finished dark?

Basswood is generic white, also tulip-poplar will take whatever you give it. True poplars are plain white, but take stains differently because the grain's normally full of reversals.

The same wood you are already using, pine or are you indicating you would like some type of cheap wood that is already dark rather then one that is stained.

If the latter, I can't think of one.

I have used pine for years aand have finished in dark colors. Two tricks: 1) one use a sanding sealer or washcoat of shellac before staining, or 2) use a gel stain and wipe it off selectively to minimize blotching...or better yet, do both

Sat, Jun 5, 2004, 11:02am snipped-for-privacy@aci.on.ca (G.E.R.R.Y.) gurgled: what is the cheapest wood that can be finished dark like mahogany or walnut without their cost?

Free.

JOAT If you're offered free wood, take it, period; figure out what to use it for later.

- JOAT

You can do it with pine. Key Word: Stain.

Birch or maple can be stained to resemble more expensive woods.

You'll need to control the blotching, but with practice, it's easy. I find a washcoat of shellac, followed by GOOD pigment stains, like Behlen's work well. Depending on the look you're after, an application of Trans-Tint or Solar Lux dye before the first washcoat, can add some terriffic depth.

Barry

I think you could stain almost any wood (including pine) to look dark, but I think that duplicating the distinctive grain of either mahogany or walnut would be a trick.

On 6 Jun 2004 08:09:45 -0700, n snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Nate Perkins) stated, with eyes & arms akimbo:

Wrong. It's walnut. By the time you've spent $15 on the pine, $8 on the sandable sealer, $9 on the can of stain, $12 on the can of varnish, 2 hours cutting it, an hour prepping it, and an hour staining it (only to find out that it looks like S*IT), you'll be tearing your hair out when you discover that the walnut would have been ten bucks cheaper all along, sans the headaches and extra chemical exposure. (Even cheaper when you tried it again with stain and got the same crappy result.)

But that's just my opinion.

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Well not necessarily. I used ponderosa pine to trim a wood stove pad and then decided to stain in dark with a wood stain. I thought it looked kind of crappy and too red, but laid the pieces on top of a walnut coffee table. Could hardly tell the stained pine from the walnut. I don't usually work with walnut but so much for remembering the color accurately.

white mahogany. $2.10/BF. Stain it any color you want.