White Dye / stain - how to?

[Fanous]

Greetings,

I'm new to woodworking, new to the forum, but I've been visiting for a while. Anyway...

I'm finishing my project, glue is drying. Time for a finish is approaching. I've built a pine rack/shelfing unit for glasses for my Mrs. for her kitchen kingdom. I'd like to ask you for help, advice and experience with wood dye / stain to achieve as much white look as possible, and yet keep the wood grain visible to a degree. Doesn't need to be much, just sattled, for the curious eye that pays attention to details... What I don't want, is some sort of wash out white like look, that's looking more like a grey/yellow wood. I also don't want a simple white colour that will completely hide the wood. If that is the case, could of built it out of MDF and no one would know any better (ish). I hope you get the idea from this flimsy description.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks
F.

 

[Harbo]

Paint with White emulsion, sand off when dry to give the appearance you seek, then give it a clear water based varnish.

Rod

 

[mrpercysnodgrass]

Harbo's suggestion is a good one an alternative may be to use a tinted waxoil.

https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/pr ... 1sQAvD_BwE

 

[TheTiddles]

As above, do a really bad job of painting!

 

[MikeG.]

Paint with White emulsion, sand off when dry to give the appearance you seek, then give it a clear water based varnish.

Rod

Or, wipe it off whilst still wet.

 

[gmgmgm]

How about lime? Look up "liming wood".

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Yes, you can use Danish or oil based finishes over it.

Or try - https://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/pr ... c-wood-dye

 

[Sgian Dubh]

How about lime? Look up "liming wood".

That technique only really works to best advantage or visual impact with ring porous woods, also known as coarse textured woods such as oak, ash, elm, and the like. Pine, in common with almost all softwoods doesn't fall into that category they generally being fine(er) textured woods. Slainte.

 

[Just4Fun]

Staining pine darker can lead to problems with blotching. Would any similar problems occur with staining it white?

 

[That would work]

As mentioned above, liming, or using a modern work around such as the use of paint is traditionally used on oak as it has an open grain that traps the white substance used to great effect.
I am not sure what it would be like on pine as I have only ever limed oak.
Be interesting to try it however. Egg sucking alert... do a test.

 

[TheTiddles]

Its very fashionable.... which means it looks terrible, but people go for it.

I’ve done it once, I was not proud of it, customer loved it.

Aidan

 

[gmgmgm]

How about lime? Look up "liming wood".

That technique only really works to best advantage or visual impact with ring porous woods, also known as coarse textured woods such as oak, ash, elm, and the like. Pine, in common with almost all softwoods doesn't fall into that category they generally being fine(er) textured woods. Slainte.

I didn't know that- very interesting!

OP, there is also Osmo's tints. I've seen them work well with other shades on pine.

 

[HappyHacker]

Diluting the emulsion with water also works but you need to experiment to get the right dilution for the appearance you want. Then clear varnish.

 

[Fanous]

Wow, lots of sugestions, many of which I didn't know about! Thanks for all of those.

My missus was worried about the looks of it in the end, and changed her mind about it, so it made my job much easier finishing with bees wax disolved in mineral oil. Buffed it in and called it done.

This is still a great source of ideas for the future, once I will have big enough balls to build the whole kitchen. By that time, I will hopefully work with different wood, not pine, and have a chance to try all methods to see if any of them are worth it.

I still need to come up with some wood species to focus on. I'm picking up a sample box tomorrow, that will help out with the looks. Then I will need to find out which of the few are easy to work with.

Off topic, does anyone know what's Mohagony wood worth? I've got few planks in my garage that I got from auction for (I believe cheap). I'm not sure I actually want to do anything out of it, as the red looks don't quite fit our living style. The planks are mostly 3x100x1200cm

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Beeswax looks lovely ........... and marks while you're thinking about it.