What kind of finish on pine?

[Tdog]

My wife wanted a storage box to keep on the front porch. I built the box in the photo out of tongue & groove pine. I'm almost finished - - I need to gussy it up a little. I'll add handles on the top, & maybe some corner molding for the edges. It is heavy as the dickins - - glad I have a FEL.

The box will be on a 10' x 60' porch, so it will be outside, but only minimally exposed to the elements. I had planned just to put a tung oil finish on it. I was pretty ignorant about what I expected, I guess. When I use that treatment on mahogany, it turns it to a richer, darker finish. When I tried it on a sample piece, it doesn't do much at all for the pine. Not sure what I want here - - just wasn't expecting it to stay so blond.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Jack

 

[bamatoolmaker]

Put some stain on it and topcoat with urethane.

 

[archerynut]

Pine in my opinion is a tough wood to get to stain the right color. I think that it is due to the soft wood. I have good luck outside or in a wet area with mix of turpentine and boiled linseed oil after stain.

 

[jeffinsgf]

ANut is right, pine doesn't take stain well.

If you absolutely must stain it, get a highly pigmented stain, and do your wipe off lightly.

Personally, I would accept the nature of the wood and work with it. Spar varnish will make it a bit more golden than blonde and protect it from moisture.

 

[randy41]

you could try some exterior semi-transparent stain.

 

[Soundguy]

Put some stain on it and topcoat with urethane.

I agree.. Or use the minwax stain+urethane all in one.

Soundguy

 

[Tdog]

Thanks all. Still not sure what I'll do. At least I've got lots of scrap to try different finishes.

Jack

 

[dubba]

It sort of depends on what color you are looking for.. a warm yellow can be had from shellac with poly over. A darker (more brown) yellow can be had from water based stain, poly, shellac, poly. With some experimenting a dull brown can be had from water based stain & poly (cherryish red also). Milk paint is always a rustic alternative

 

[Alan L.]

We have all pine trim in our new house. Pine will take a dark stain pretty well but a light stain not too well. After experimenting we settled on cherry stain and really like the results.

 

[Youare]

Depending on what color light or dark you want to end up with maybe you will not need any stain. Pine that has no stain will turn a honey color after a while. I made a screen door out of pine that has taken on a nice mellow honey color. I have also used cherry stain on pine with nice results, just a little darker with a reddish brown hue.

As far as an outside finish I always use a marine grade finish. This seems to stand up better to wet conditions and has UV protection from the sunlight. That is a nice looking box.

Randy

 

[scott_vt]

Mornin Tdog,
Nice lookin job ! Pine wont stain well without using a prestain such as Bix etc because of the uneven distribution of sap in the wood ! If you try and stain without using the prestain you very often get a blotchy finish ! As others have suggested, even though the piece will not be exposed directly to the elements it still will have to contend with moisture issues. My suggestion would be, prestain, stain to desired color, lightly sand and apply a couple coats of exterior grade poly !

 

[Tdog]

Here's the finished product. I decided to use a stain that I had used before on my mahogany front door - Ipswich Pine by Minwax. I put it on very lightly & did not leave it long before rubbing it off. Then I finished it with a concoction from my neighbor, a mixture of tung oil, boiled linseed oil & polyurethane - 3 coats. If you look carefully enough you will also see the gouge I put in it with the FEL. I had a blanket protecting it, I thought, but between bad luck, operator error, & the stoopids, I managed to mar the front pretty well. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to live with it, or if I'm going to repair it.

Jack

 

[mikim]

Now that I see where it is ... I think I woulda found some paint to match the siding and painted it. I don't think it's marred bad enough to mess with. - Nice box.