Hi all! Type Of Wood Help

[BobUK]

Hi all!

I've been reading the boards for a bit of time now and decided to join to get involved and try to help with my cabin fever!

I'm looking to get a finish similar to the photo but I can't work out the type of wood, I've had a go with redwood but the knots are still orange (rather than dark like the photo) even after applying a dark wax.

Can anybody help with the type of wood I need to buy?

Thanks, Bob

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Probably any one of Scots Pine (redwood), spruce (whitewood) or fir. It's frequently hard to identify a wood species based only upon a low resolution image, but that wee snap is almost certainly of conifers (aka a softwoods) Slainte.

 

[BobUK]

Thanks for that, does whitewood not orange like redwood?

If not that would make sense why my knots are orange.

 

[profchris]

That looks like a technique used by musical instrument builders to accentuate the grain.

In simple terms, you apply a dark stain or dye to the wood (how many coats depends on how dark you want it, that particular species of wood, etc).

Once fully dry, you sand back the surface. End grain (like knots) absorbs a lot of dye, and other parts of the wood absorb it differentially. So when you've sanded far enough, you get your light/dark contrast.

You have to practice a lot on offcuts until you get the look you want. But an important tip is not to splash the stain/dye on copiously, instead apply several nearly dry coats. Otherwise it might soak in too far, so you can't sand back to get the contrast.

I don't use this technique myself, but I have read extensively about it. If you have any black or very dark brown stain to hand, take an offcut and wipe on (not brush) a very sparse coat. Allow to dry. Repeat twice more (three coats in total). The next day, sand back and see what you get. For more contrast, apply more coats in the next test - you get the idea.

I suspect you'll need to run quite a few tests before you get what you're looking for. If it helps, I'd guess the dye in your photo is black.

 

[Doug71]

I would say it's whitewood looking at the knots, whitewood generally soaks up stains etc more then redwood.

 

[thetyreman]

it looks like dark wax on spruce / whitewood, where they can't be bothered to hand plane it so all the machine marks show through.

 

[BobUK]

Perfect, thanks for all your help, much appreciated!