(10-07-2020, 03:41 PM)Mike 55 Wrote: Hi Guys,

I'm finishing some 30 year old red pine that has some nice redish/brown stripes. Last time I worked with this I put a conditioner on it to keep it from blotching and I used a stain/poly mix. Looking to do something different. Any ideas?  

Thanks

Mike

(10-07-2020, 03:41 PM)Mike 55 Wrote: Hi Guys,

I'm finishing some 30 year old red pine that has some nice redish/brown stripes. Last time I worked with this I put a conditioner on it to keep it from blotching and I used a stain/poly mix. Looking to do something different. Any ideas?  

Thanks

Mike

(10-07-2020, 08:24 PM)MsNomer Wrote: Stick with what works.  Pine is exquisite when finished right and godawful when finished wrong.  MinWax Antique Pine is a good stain choice after the conditioner.  Whatever you do, don’t stain so dark that you get reverse grain like they did in the 70’s.  That's what gave pine a bad name.

(10-08-2020, 07:23 AM)Cooler Wrote: back in the late 1990s and early 2000s I used to go the national hardware show in Chicago, one of the largest trade shows in the USA. 

Norm Abrams was a celebrity hire at one of the trade booths--as I recall it was the year that DeWalt came out with their first table saw--and I believe he was working at the DeWalt booth. 

He had on display a pine "desk" which was a portable item with a hinged lift top for access to storage.  It was made from pine. 

I asked him about the finish and he said he always used MinWax's oil based Polyshades on pine.  He picked the color he wanted and added as many coats as required to get the depth of color he needed.  If he needed more coats after the color was achieved, then he added clear oil based poly.

I've been using that method ever since.  There is never any blotching and if you pick a good color it will look great.

I don't know why he chose oil based over water based, but perhaps in 1999 the oil based finish was much better than the water based.

(10-08-2020, 09:38 AM)jteneyck Wrote: Why stain it?  Stain on pine almost always leads to disappointment.  Pine looks great when allowed to mellow on its own.  Shellac followed by the clearcoat of your choice would be what I'd do.  If I had to darken it, I'd spray dye or a shellac toner on it and then clearcoat it.  

John

(10-09-2020, 06:10 PM)Mike 55 Wrote: I've never used shellac but I can give it a try. Can I add a few drops of dye to the shellac to give it some color?

Thanks

Mike

(10-09-2020, 06:38 PM)jteneyck Wrote: You can add as little or as much Transtint dye to shellac as you wish, same with WB clearcoats, and change the color a little or completely.  These red cabinets were built with white ash:



But more subtle changes are possible, too.  Here I varied the amount and color of Transtint in both Sealcoat and my WB topcoat to match an existing piece.  



John