Replies

1. 
   BrianF | Nov 19, 2003 05:39am | #1

   I did a nice high end kitchen in red birch last year. It's beautiful, I get alot of compliments on how deep and clear the finish is. Birch just seems to have an iridescence (SP?) to it and the red color enhances it. It has the color of cherry with the easy working character of birch.

2. 
   ~~BenM | Nov 20, 2003 12:40am | #2

   I made 17 rail and stile cabinet doors for my kitchen w/ red birch and just love the stuff, particularly after a few coats of tung oil.  It is rich and shimmery, catches sun beautifully, and was quite easy to work with.

   Ben

1. 
   pino | Nov 20, 2003 01:17am | #3

   This will be a first for me. i have seen cabinets in this stuff before and really loved them. Thought it was time to give it a try.

   Did you put anything over the tung oil as a top coat? My project wil get lots of kids hands on it, so I was thinking Shellac or varnish, but I really do love the look of just oil.

1. 
   forestgirl | Nov 20, 2003 03:23am | #4

   A mirror, not being a standing piece of furniture, should do fine with just an oil finish or perhaps wax on top, although then you're faced with cleaning and rewaxing periodically.  anything more than that, I'd choose shellac.  There are numerous shades of shellac, check 'em out here:http://homesteadfinishing.com/htdocs/Shellaccatalog.htmforestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl   ;-)

1. 
   pino | Nov 20, 2003 03:34am | #5

   Thanks. I have used a dark garnet in the past to give pine and doug fir an antiqued or patina'd look that matches well with the original shellac finish on my woodwork.

   maybe I will give it a try here as well.

2. 
   ~~BenM | Nov 20, 2003 04:38pm | #6

   I left it w/ just four coats of tung oil, thinking I could always replenish if they faded, etc.  But you could always put wax over the oil, or skip that and go with shellac.