need help with my first finish

[Kevin Gregoire]

i have been building a few cremation urns to give to a local charity
i have made the small boxes from pine and i need to stain now but dont
know what i should apply as i have never stained before?

in my little town i have an Ace Hardware, Walmart, True Value and two lumber yards.
a nearby city has Lowes, Menards, and Home Depot so what should i get
and where?

i would like something dark and goes on easy with a foam brush.

what can you guys recommend? and let me know where you got it and a
link if possible so i know what to look for.

[Steve Schoene]

Pine is about the most difficult wood there is to stain attractively. I would seriously think about making these boxes from a premium hardwood that will be much easier to finish well. Walnut or mahogay both stain and finish well, and cherry needs no stain to be attractive. Much easier to be dignified and respectful.

If you are wedded to pine, I suspect you will have to obtain some materials on-line, especially the dye I would recommend for coloring the wood. Dye penetrates and colors more evenly with less blotching. www.homesteadfinishingproducts.com sells TransFast water soluble powdered dyes.

Then you can use almost any top coat. I'm not a fan of foam brushes for any finish. I'd recommend using a wipe-on varnish for ease of application. Or, shellac makes an quick drying finish that is very long-lived. It too can be applied with a cloth pad rather than having to be brushed.

[Joe Chritz]

Ditto on what Steve said. Getting a good stain on pine is normally very difficult. The darker the worse it is in my opinion.

There can't be much material involved and cherry or walnut with no stain would be my choice. A wipe down with boiled linseed oil and a shellac finish or lacquer. Both are available in spray bomb from the box stores. (zinseer shellac or deft lacquer)

To get a good dark color on pine you will likely need to use a dye and sometimes a stain after that. Transtint is the only one I use but just because I have had decent luck with it and don't look around for anything else.

Make test boards and remember that dye looks bad until it is topcoated so if you put some on and it looks bad give the test panel a finish coat to see what it really looks like.

Joe

[Quinn McCarthy]

Kevin,

I have had good luck staining pine in the lighter colors. If you are looking for a light aged amber tone you could use shellac with a wipe on polyurethane on top. They are both available at Menards. Make sure you cover every surface on the box or you will end up with movement in the wood. The best way to get the look you want is by trying different finish combinations on practice board. Once you get what you want then do it to the box. I use foam brushes quite a bit for test sample boards.

Steve mentioned homestead finishing. I just bought a bunch of trans tint dyes for curly maple but haven't tried them yet. Jeff who owns homestead finishing has a few books out on finishing. I have one called "Great wood finishes". Great book to have.

I friend who has a cabinet shop just uses minwax stain on pine with no pre stain conditioner.

Test test test.

Hope that helps.

Quinn

[John Schreiber]

As everyone said, test test test and not just on small pieces either because the pine will look different in different spots. To achieve what you are aiming at I'd try first a layer or two of shellac to seal the surface, then perhaps a gel stain. You could then add another layer of shellac or a compatible poly for extra durability.

If you really want to go with easy, and you don't need to get too dark, you could dry a couple coats of Danish oil, but I doubt you'll get the look you want on pine.

Finishing is seldom simple, and you'd think pine would be easy, but it's not.

[Kevin Gregoire]

well thats just my luck as i have a LOT of pine to use up and if dark is that difficult to
apply i will certainly go lighter if i have to?
i just thought i would use a foam brush as they are very cheap at HF but i dont have a
problem with wiping a finish on.

is shellac clear, or is polyurethane?
and i can do plenty of testing on pine so no problem there.

thanks for the help.

[Quinn McCarthy]

Most shellacs have an aber or reddish color to them. Polyurethane can be either solvent look or water clear. The water clear is usually water base poly. Make sure you use a dewaxed shellac if you use water based poly as the top coat. The Menard's here in town doesn't carry dewaxed shellac. Here is a link to some of the shallacs available.

http://www.homesteadfinishingproduct...s/shellac3.htm

I have used shellac in the past to make new pine cabinets look like the pine paneling they are be mounted on. I have also used shellac as a starting point for making cherry cabinets match existing cherry cabinets that were 20 years old.

Quinn