Shellac and pine?

[introuble!]

Hi folks,

at last i've had some more time to play and have finished a built in set of drawers and wardrobe made from pine, now i have the problem of what to use to finish them.

Been all over the internet and read so many contradictory things it's untrue! Requirements - stable and reasonably hard wearing not bright orange and no cracking / egg shelling!

Found a lot about shellac, sounds good - the ability to mix a cut for a sanding sealer, clear but you can add some amber to colour if wanted, no sanding between coats and easy to touch up but differing views of how to apply and if to put a varnish of the top and if so what type etc etc help please Whos doing what with pine and how do you go about it?

Any advice gratefully received

Dean

 

[Former Glory]

You could use Danish oil, it's hardwearing and doesn't watermark or chip as easily as shellac. Shellac wears through quicker and it will colour the pine more than oil. Danish oil alone will give a satin finish but if you want a higher gloss, then over coat it with a good hard wax well buffed.

 

[OldWood]

I've got an old cottage and had the bar and batten doors paint stripped when we did the first cut at improvement. They are now many years later a lovely set honey colour, but getting modern pine for facings and so on to match proved an interesting challenge when I came later to replacing all the wall woodwork (facings, skirtings).

I found that modern so-called red pine needed to be actually made redder by staining with a diluted down red mahogany stain - a quick wipe over with a cloth just to give the wood a gentle pinkish colour. I then gave it a couple of coats of light oak.

I used a shellac finish as the surfaces weren't going to get any wear and shellac gets over the dust problem of other varnishes.

Rob