On Aug 28, 10:26*pm, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

You could try the old ploy of spraying a mild alkali over the boards, this
brings out that nice mellow colour in minutes. *Half a teaspoon of caustic
soda to a litre of water in a plant sprayer, mist it over, allow to dry.
Works a treat.

I did that on some new timber shelves once - scrubbed them with
caustic. It certainly took the hard edges off, and yellowed the wood.
Looked OK once I'd gone over it with Fiddes, but nowhere near as nice
as the pine frame of a mirror left on a sunny wall for a year...

Anyway, I have a plan now - I don't see why the Wickes matt high VOC
polyeurethane varnish shouldn't be good enough for a floor, so I'm
going to try that.

I've spent the past 20 mins reading the archive, and discovered
admonitions to use gloss for the under-coats, if using matt for the
top, to avoid a milky finish - I'm speculating that this applies to
water-based varnish, though.

Suck it and see, I think.

Cheers
Richard