Replies

1. 
   cahudson42 | Sep 09, 2010 12:33pm | #1

   Try Zinnser Amber Shellac

   I recently did a Pine Bookcase in Zinsser Amber Shellac. Several coats, thinned with Ethanol 50/50, and brushed with a decent China Bristle brush. It looks much like your photo. 

   And right now I also am building a hanging Pine Plate Rack - and plan to use the same finish.

   Bookcase photo below. Behind it is a pine door stile, aged 20 years. While the new is lighter than most of it, the match isn't bad IMHO.

   Of course, try the shellac on a piece of scrap first to see how you like it.

   Chris

   
2. 
   swenson | Sep 10, 2010 02:25am | #2

   Problem is that this light depth of cut

   Can't help with the finish but have some observations.  I was in the same boat a few years ago when my son and his wife wanted a dining room table made of reclaimed wood.  They chose oak fence boards from Loudoun County, VA where he grew up.  Farm fence boards in this county are painted black and the boards we chose had knots, voids, cracks and weathering... all great character that they wanted to incorporate in the final table.  What I did was carefully joint the face of each board that had the most character, taking very light passes, trying not to remove too much of the lovely bad stuff.  There was a trade off between flat and patina and I favored patina.  In each case when I was getting too close to removing character I would give up on flat and and run the other side thru the planer to a 3/4 thickness.  This gave me, after glue up, a perfectly flat underside to the top and a not so perfect kinda wavy surface on top.  I worked sharp edges with scrapers and sandpaper so the boards flowed into eack other on the surface and filled the voids in some of the knots and cracks with black Apoxey, a clay/epoxey substance used in Hollywood model making.  Parts of the creature in the movie Alien were made of this stuff.  It was strange, being somewhat of a perfectionist, to try on purpose to look weathered and mis matched and full of cracks but when done I loved the look so much I made another table like it from cherry for my own kitchen using the knot filled center cuts they burn and throw away at the mill.  The uneven top did not affect the bread board ends, 'though I did have to even out that seam a bit as well.

   I'm wondering if you absolutely have to get perfectly flat and square for your build.  I know a table top is more forgiving than a plate rack but there might be a way around it.  Tomorrow I'll post more pix of the tables.

   
3. 
   WillGeorge | Sep 10, 2010 03:54am | #3

   Using Watco Natural for testing purposes, I have found that the appearance varies considerably with how much of the patina I must remove to true out the boards.

   I would think that using Watco Natural is what the wood is..

   Why make it differen from what it is.. Love is strange.. Only you.. Good Night Sweetheart and others,,

   And finishing any wood could be like the very old song,, The great pretender.. Or many tears have to fall...

   But then again, I never try to make wood other than it's natural beauty... Unless I have to do it by other requests.

   I found 'My thrill' with wood as it wants to be.. Wood.. You got what it takes.. and maybe I just love old songs..