HELP - Covering knots in pine before varnish

[danbre]

My partner and I are in the process of finishing our first home and need to cover the knots in the pine on our window boards.

We have oak doors, skirting etc all over the house, but our window boards are pine (quite knotty pine)! We are hoping to somehow disguise these knots (possibly with some type of primer) and then varnish over with an oak stain.

We would really appreciate if anyone could help us with some suggestions as to how we may cover up these knots.

 

[blightymam]

There's clear knotting but it won't hide the knots.. I've never heard of anything to cover the knots if you're keeping it wood - only knotting solution which is for when you paint the wood. Surely whatever you put on will show up? They'd probably blend in more when you wood stain it anyway, esp if using a more dark oak colour.

 

[danbre]

Yeah that's what we were thinking.

I'm going to try whatever we can get our hands on and will update if we are successful.

I'm hoping to find something in the way of a tinted filler, so fingers crossed!

 

[big-all]

you need to embrace the knots or change the boards for oak
pine will never ever look like oak as the grain structure is completely different
disguising the knots will look even worse as the grain curves round the knots

 

[blightymam]

I'm hoping to find something in the way of a tinted filler, so fingers crossed!

I really would advise against that.. It will look naff and I think you will regret it. Wood filler is fine for really small bits, but it's still a patch up. Having it on knots, especially if you have so many is going to look very strange... random circles of not wood - be a little 'Mr Blobby'!
First of all, there will be no pattern on your wood filler, so the filler will stand out anyway and probably a lot more than any knot. Second of all, pine (and most woods) will change colour over time, so even if you are lucky enough to find an exact match of wood filler, it will not match later on while the window ledge has been exposed to light over time. What do you do then?

As Big-all said, you should embrace the knots. They are a natural part of wood after all. If you really hate them, I would recommend painting them white (or whatever colour you have on your windows) and settling for that. Or of course, what Big-all also said, change the wood used. It's not actually that big a job and one you could do yourself if any good with a saw.

 

[Nige F]

Knots are good - I get timber for small jobs from local Wickes - I seek out the knots on the edges etc. that make the wood useless for a long run, then get it @ a discount because they know it won't sell Then cut to avoid knots.

 

[dcdec]

Only real option if you don't want to replace them with oak would be to do a faux finish, but it takes skill and some specialist tools. There are guys out there that do it and you'd never know it was fake.