One wall of my dining room is pine. I like the colour of newly
sanded light pine, but this has darkened since it was last sanded
and varnished (probably 20 years ago by previous owners). Before
I embark on the rather mammoth and incredibly boring task of sanding
and varnishing it again (previous owners said they would never have
started it if they had any idea how much work was involved), is
there something I can do to prevent it darkening in the future,
such as a special varnish or some pre-varnish dressing?

By the way, this isn't just some pine panelling someone has added,
it is the original 1900 solid pine wall -- the boards are around
an inch thick T&G, self-supporting with no additional structure.

--
Andrew Gabriel

On Tue, 5 Apr 2005 20:04:03 +0000 (UTC),
(Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

One wall of my dining room is pine.

As something of an oddity, yours may actually be pine. Almost all
pine these days (esp. the "naughty pine" furniture) isn't - it's
usually hemlock. All of these will darken with age, but pine
especially so.

Also most varnishes, especially polys, will darken the surface
further. Some of the water-based deliberately "water clear" ones will
do it less. This is most noticeable on the really light softwoods,
much less so on pines. I tend to use blonde shellac rather than poly,
partly to avoid this.

On the whole, you're stuffed. Softwoods darken with age and there's
little you can do about it. Sand the surface off if you like, but
it'll darken again. If you're desperate for pale wood, use maple or
ash instead.

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
One wall of my dining room is pine. I like the colour of newly
sanded light pine, but this has darkened since it was last sanded
and varnished (probably 20 years ago by previous owners). Before
I embark on the rather mammoth and incredibly boring task of sanding
and varnishing it again (previous owners said they would never have
started it if they had any idea how much work was involved), is
there something I can do to prevent it darkening in the future,
such as a special varnish or some pre-varnish dressing?

1) Paint it.
2) Paint it - "graining".

HTH.

On Tue, 5 Apr 2005 22:23:16 +0100, "Jeff" wrote:

I like my pine the same, light and I also like the natural look rather than
the plasticky varnished look hence I always use clear acrylic varnish as its
the only thing I found that doesn't darken the wood and leaves a waxed look
to it
But the wood does darken with age and lightens in the sun

I've got varnished (clear satin poly-u) pine doors and you can see them
darkening. I really like the colour pine goes after a few years.
Perhaps bright sunshine lightens them, but a lot of the darkening is
also caused by light: I've got one of those wide bolts on the loo door,
and the wood that is covered by it when not locked is notably lighter
than the rest after about 2 years.
--
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