Jim,

Oh, thanks for the comment on steel wool and water, I hadn't thought
of that and would've been very disappointed.

The furniture I'm doing this weekend is a mixture of birch, a little
maple, and pine. But usually it's just pine that I use. The stuff is
for myself and I'm still in college so I can't afford much (hence
pine).

Oughtsix,

I know what you mean about grain. I saw walnut last year for the first
time without stain and I couldn't believe how much more beautiful it
is. All the walnut I've seen has always been stained very very dark,
almost to the point it's black and I never liked it until I saw it
unstained. The biggest problem is some of the future will be pine and
I want the pieces to blend together. I don't know once I get every
thing I built in the room maybe I won't have to stain and can just
clear coat everything.

MB,

You know that's exactly what I was thinking, but didn't know if doing
that was possible. I mean it should be possible right? There will be
3-4 coats of poly underneathe so why not. My stepdad does autobody
work so I learned some of those techniques for metal. I just didn't
think they would work on wood. You can see some of the CNC machine I
built in my dad's garage he

http://cutterscove.blogspot.com/

Thanks, guys, you've been really helpful.