Replies

1. 
   David_Gilmore | Jun 26, 2000 03:12am | #1

   *
   JB, I have built quite a few pieces of furniture and cabinets out of Douglas Fir, both vertical grain and flatsawn. A light staining will even up the colour a bit and even more so the darker you go.

   However, Douglas Fir is a funny wood in that it darkens naturally upon exposure to light so much in the first 6 months to a year that it is hard to say which panels will be darker or lighter after that time. Most of the time if the stock has been selected with a bit of care everything evens up nicely and any differences become quite subtle. Unless you have some really yellow looking panels I wouldn't do too much beyond a half dozen coats of clear water based exterior poly. The oil based poly or spar varnish will yellow quite a bit and this coupled with the colour of the fir after time may be a bit too orange for your taste.

   As for wood filler, if you are going the clearcoat method use something that will be the colour of the fir after it has darkened. It may look a bit odd right now but the wood will darken around it. In one of my earlier projects I used a filler that was the same colour as the freshly milled fir and after the wood had darkened all the places there were filler really looked odd.

   Good Luck, David

1. 
   T.Wyatt | Jul 28, 2000 02:35am | #2

   *Try using a red oak stain and high gloss ploy. I just finished an aquarium cabinet and it looks fantastic. The light and dark grains really look great. I used black trim and it matches perfectly.