Hi. This question belongs in woodworking section but I would like to ask it here because of more traffic here.
I have 1×6 premium grade pine from Homedepot. They are knot free but grains are not prominent. I tried amber shellac on the backside but it is unsatisfactory. I would like the grain to stand out without using Minwax oil stain. Therefore,
1. aniline dye? seal the wood then use the dye? would this make the grain stand out without letting the soft wood absorb too much dye?
2. ammonia or rust water treatment? These are supposed to react with tannin in the wood, but I don’t know if pine would react the same way as oak or others. Anybody try these on a pine?
I am making a bed frame and don’t really have too much time to experiment. Any experience is appreciated. Thank you all in advance.
Replies
I'd use minwax wood conditioner followed by minwax oil stain myself. Why not the Minwax?
pine staining
Thank you for the reply. I am getting a little tired of brown tone of wood stain. The bed frame is also not for myself, although my mother would be happy with traditional wood stain. Her color is green and I thought dye may be the answer. However, I went to 2 paint stores today and neither carried anilin dyes. I may have to use the minwax. I'll try the Homedepot tomorrow, who knows? Again thanks and I'll post something similar in the Knots if I want to do something like this in the future.
>>>neither carried anilin
>>>neither carried anilin dyes.
Can be ordered here:
http://www.leevalley.com
Stain in any color you want.
A real paint store will have a stain base that they use to color match stains. These use regular paint tints so they could mix a green stain, or purple, or any other color you want. This will be an oil stain similar to a Minwax stain. A stain made like this likely settles quickly so keep stirring it while you use it. I have never used anilin dyes so I can't tell you if this is a better or worse solution. If you use this this solution, take some wood scraps to the paint store so they can test it as they mix it. Otherwise, they will have to use a stir stick and hope that your wood looks similar.
woodwork store
Do you have a Woodcraft or Rockler anywhere near you?
They have a decent selection of colors.
He said he wanted the grain to stand out.
.
I see no one asked the obvious question: You're making a bed frame out of 1x6 pine??
pine staining
I ended up using minwax stain. This is because I did not have the time to order from the specialty stores. Homedepot just started stocking water based stain but it was not ready to mix colors yet, no formulas from the manufacturer.
I did get advice from Knots that aniline will not make the grain stand out and that pine is very hard to stain.
This frame is more like a platform for just the mattress. I don't know why the mattresses are getting thicker, but using mattress and the box will make it too high.
I read George Frank book for fun, and it mentioned emphasizing grain with rusty water, but I did not want to change the wood to gray or brown and he was talking about other kinds of wood. Since this platform will show only 5 or so inches of wood, I just used ebony minwax stain which made the grain show in lighter colors compared to the other parts.
Why not?
I'll see your question and raise you one. Why not pine. I've made lots of early Texas furniture designs out of pine. Can't say I ever bought any of my boards from retail box stores. The best pine comes from whatever building they're tearing down this month.
Pine is fine for building on a budget or reproducing elegant, hard scrabble furniture. They used what they had available in those days, and it works for me for the right purpose.
iIt wasn't the pine, it was the 1x6. Far too flimsy to serve as a true bedframe (especially in pine). But the OP explained that this isn't a conventional bedframe but rather a bed platform.