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