woodworkers. Favorite stain for Pine?

[gtp1976]

Personally, I am rather fond of "Early American" from Minwax. It's a darker stain but if you only one-coat it, not terribly dark. I've been experimenting with some of the lighter stains like Cherry and something else, but they seem to get too orange no matter how many coats I apply.

What are some of your favorites?

Also, Gloss or semi-gloss clear? I prefer the glossy look for most applications.

[BiggJawn]

1. Raw Umber.

It's got a greenish tinge to it I always found interesting.
If it's TOO green, add maybe 50-50 special walnut with it. I'm not sure of the Minwax name, we always used Parliment's (a local brand)

[gtp1976]

3. Thanks. I'll look for it.

I am not brand loyal by any means to minwax, it is just what most of the stores around here carry.

[BiggJawn]

4. "Special Walnut" may not be a common name.

Let me think...that's been 20 years ago!
It was brown. And I think it may have had some red tone to it.

Yeah, it had some red in it, because we'd use it on Mahogany, and the colour was very good. the red tone of the wood came out without looking like that stuff at Pier 1...Mahogany was a hard wood to work with in re-finishing, because the original colour usual was an aniline dye, and was very difficult to get bleached out of the wood.

I used to mix up a blend to aproximate that blackish pine stuff Ethan Allen used to make. Equal parts raw and burnt umber. made for a greenish black stain. And if you took 1 part of THAT mixture, and mixed it with 2 parts of Special Walnut, it would make Oak come close to looking "fumed".

Experiment. Have fun.

good luck!

[TaleWgnDg]

2. Anything as long as it's not close to dog-droppings brindle ... n/t

[blue agave]

5. I have some panneling and trim with cherry stain ...

that was in the house when we bought it. It does not look orange, but kind of a medium brown neutral tone. I had a hard time trying to match it when making some repairs, since it does not look like any native wood color. But finally figured out that it was cherry on pine.

[amerikat]

6. pine is difficult to finish well, but can be as beautiful as the rarest

Wood on earth. It is probably the most abundant wood on the planet. I mean all the pine, fir,hemlock and all the softwood evergreens. I have worked with wood for many years. Pine is treated like the wood not worth finishing......better suited to the realm of plywood the utilitarian cannon fodder of the world of wood.

Having said that, I am not a big fan a minwax stains. There is nothing wrong with the color or quality. Minwax is a fine product but they tend to say that you can take a rough piece of wood and it will become a masterpiece with the application of their product. Pine is all about the preparation. The hours of sanding and scraping and more sanding with yet a finer grit.....and so on and so on.

I could go on and on about stains and finishes, varnish, shellac and lacquer. Having worked with pine my favorite finish is linseed oil and turpentine. It's too simple i know but it is the finish that brings out that beautiful golden honey color that pine can become.

finish with several coats of danish oil and you will have an heirloom that will last and be admired for generations.

What are you finishing or building?

[gtp1976]

7. right now

a coffee table. It is pretty much a practice project until I get all the tools I need. If this is disappointing, I apologize. :-)

[UpsideDownFlag]

8. eh, i hate staining pine. it takes like 10 coats before it all soaks in.