I’m getting ready to help present the Minwax® “Do Good With Wood™ Award” to the Western New York Woodturners club, where my presentation will be “My Five Favorite Woods — And How To Finish Them.” You can probably guess the first four, but this toolbox should give you a clue as to #5.
The answer: any old wood.
Years ago we might have stripped, sanded, and refinished this antique toolbox, but now all it needs is a coat of protective Paste Finishing Wax to keep it looking like the antique it is.
Thanks for stopping by!
Bruce
Hi! My husband and I undertook a huge DIY project: we stipped the paint from all the molding in our prewar apartment. Door frames, window frames and baseboards. The layers of paint were really thick and crusted over the details. Once they were gone, the beautiful old wood beneath was blotchy and stained. So we finished most of it off with paint and primer. But now we are on the last room and we really, really want to keep the wood bare. We would have loved to just seal it, but it doesn’t look that great as blotchy as it is. is there a product that can even it out?
Alternatively, we could stain it, but will it stain evenly with those blotches? Maybe Minwax pre-stain conditioner? ‘m afraid to try it! Thanks!
The Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner is designed to prevent blotchiness before it happens, so I don’t think it’s going to do any good on the blotches you are already seeing, May. Since there is no way of knowing for sure what caused the blotchiness a small bit of experimentation is going to be necessary. First I would see what happens when you sand a section that is blotchy to see if it is on the surface and not very deep. If that is the case then I would suggest you sand it down to the bare wood to remove the blotches, then apply the Wood Conditioner before staining it the color of your choosing.
If, however, the blotches don’t come off with sanding then your only hope would be to try experimenting with different colors of stain in order to minimize the blotchiness.
In either case, be sure you pick an inconspicuous spot for these experiments. Good luck!