# Refinishing old growth douglas fir wainscoting



## packeted (Mar 29, 2018)

Hey everyone,

It's my first post and very happy to be part of such an incredible community. We bought our first home several months ago, a 1912 Craftsman and it has a lot of the original douglas fir paneling. It was almost black when we got it, I guess the stain was already dark and had darkened over time and we really wanted to lighten things up. Rather than paint it I decided to strip it all down. 

Several months later and it's all down to the wood and I have learned so much about scraping and sanding! The stain was rather stubborn and I had to work up from 60 grit using all kinds of sanders, including a 3" orbital sander for thin strips along the ceiling that nothing else would get in to.

After hundreds of hours of work I'm now ready to embark on finishing and we're keen to finally have a living room and dining room! In the process I uncovered a gunshot hole in the wood that had been filled, you can see the shot embedded in the lath and plaster behind!

I had planned to stain and coat in polyurethane. We've tried almost the entire Minwax collection of oil based stain - some came out too dark, others didn't seem to bring out the grain and one of my experimental pieces of wood (a shelf from one of the built in cabinets, in the pics) came out really blotchy despite using prestain conditioner, which really threw me but I think something happened to the shelf in the past.

Yesterday I decided to bite the bullet and applied our most promising stain, golden oak, to the actual paneling. While it looks good I think its a bit too dark any way darker than the test piece I'd tried it on before...

I was wondering if people have advice or tips on other things to try? I'm considering even going with no stain, just sealing with polyurethane - have people had success with that?

Thanks so much!
More photos here at https://photos.app.goo.gl/7aLgKvJ3FEzjXKAs2

Cheers,
Francis


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

It looks about typical for golden oak. If it's too dark about all you can do to that area is to strip and sand it again. What you could have done with the golden oak to lighten it is to mix it with the natural stain or just thin it with mineral spirits. 

No farther than you are in the project you might consider changing stain. Minwax brand of stains are pretty poor. It's not as colorfast as other brands of stain. I quit using it completely because I could see their provincial stain get blotchy and fade to another color within a few years.


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## packeted (Mar 29, 2018)

Thanks Steve, this process is rather infuriating!! I applied some satin polyurethane to the golden oak stained wood and it definitely brings out some more sheen which I like a little more.


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## videoword (Feb 27, 2018)

packeted said:


> Thanks Steve, this process is rather infuriating!! I applied some satin polyurethane to the golden oak stained wood and it definitely brings out some more sheen which I like a little more.


You might want to apply a seal coat first. Something like SealACell could be good. Then apply poly on top of that.

Or try using a Tung oil varnish - which is a blend of Tung oil and... varnish. Will soak nicely into the wood and then give you an initial coat of sealant. Cna apply your poly on top of that.

Can even make your own to save some money. Something like 1pt Tung oil, 1 pt mineral spirits, 1pt poly.

Also for oak I like to use water based dyes if you are looking to achieve a nice even color. And you can water them down as much as you'd like if too dark.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

videoword said:


> You might want to apply a seal coat first. Something like SealACell could be good. Then apply poly on top of that.
> 
> Or try using a Tung oil varnish - which is a blend of Tung oil and... varnish. Will soak nicely into the wood and then give you an initial coat of sealant. Cna apply your poly on top of that.
> 
> ...


Sealcoat would work as a sealer but SealACell contains waxes which he shouldn't put polyurethane over the top. It could be used as the only finish though.


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## videoword (Feb 27, 2018)

Steve Neul said:


> Sealcoat would work as a sealer but SealACell contains waxes which he shouldn't put polyurethane over the top. It could be used as the only finish though.


:thumbsup:


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