The rich golden patina is a matter of years. Some of it may be
stain, some of it is the wood itself exposed to light, some of it
may be yellowing of the finish.

On floor repairs I use a very light application of stain in the
right color group. I do not try to get as dark as the original,
just headed the right way. You can also use tinted varnish.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DanG
A live Singing Valentine quartet,
a sophisticated and elegant way to say I LOVE YOU!
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"kevin" wrote in message
ups.com...

Looking back in this groups, people say that oil-based poly will
eventually turn "gold" colored (on soft pine floor and trim),
but
water based poly never. Can anyone tell me how long this might
take?
Weeks? Years? Decades? Any tips on speeding up the process in
any way,
or faking it (i.e., put down some kind of stain first)?

I need to finish up some repair work -- I removed a chimney, so
I have
now filled in a 2'x2' hole in the floor, replaced misc trim
pieces,
etc., with new wood. The existing floor and trim is very golden,
worn
looking, and can not all be replaced just for the sake of these
few
pieces. But water-based poly on a test piece of the pine I used
in my
repairs results in a beautiful clear and light finish that looks
absolutely nothing like the worn, deep golden color of all the
existing stuff.

Thanks!

-Kevin