Staircase and spindles sanded - how to prevent going orange?

[DebbieJ]

Hi There All,

I'm new to this forum and wondered if anybody could give any much welcome advice?
I have just sanded my entire staircase and the spindles. My hands hurt !
Anyways...I am a bit confused about the best way to finish the pine.
I really really don't want the pine to turn yellow/orange as this is the finish I just sanded off! I really want a greyish very natural looking finish - kinda waxed rather than shiny gloss.
I know that wax will not be very hardy so am thinking a water based varnish or lacquer might be best, but am very aware that this may yellow quite quickly.
Any suggestions to how to prevent this from happening? I wouldn't mind the pine being a very light oaky colour, but no orangey.
Any thoughts?
Debbie

 

[big-all]

its the oil that goes yellow
choose a finnish thats water based but avoid antique pine finnish unless you can see the manufactures dosnt add yellow colour

light oak finnish is a more subtle brown colour thats worth looking at if you want an antique pine colour

just remember pine will turn antique pine colour in a couple off years without intervention

 

[DebbieJ]

Hi Big-All!
Thanks for replying....much appreciated.
I've seen pine furniture with a very low sheen finish that appears to have as greyish/light brown tone to it. Could this be achieved on a pine staircase? Or do you think the products used on furniture might not be suitable or hard wearing enough for a heavy traffic area such as stairs?
Sorry to keep asking questions it's just that after nearly killing myself sanding I really wanna get the finish right..

Or..could I use a whitish stain then varnish over? Would this look horrible?? lol

 

[foxhole]

A greyish brown finish is not natural, it's probably been dyed, try antigue pine or light oak wood dye on a scrap of pine and you will see the effect.

 

[DebbieJ]

Hi Foxhole,

I was leaning toward actually using an oil or something like the Osmo products http://www.osmouk.com/ shown here. Mainly due to the simplicity of subsequent applications for maintenance.
However, can water based varnish be recoated for future maintenance? I'm really unsure as I've read somewhere that some varnishes cannot be recoated at a later stage and I really really don't want to have to sand the staircase again in future if I can avoid it. Yes..I guess that makes me a tad lazy lol.

Anyways what do ya think? Will an oil product like maybe tung oil mean massive ongoing maintenance or do you think water based varnish will provide a pretty low maintenance solution?
Debbie

 

[foxhole]

You could use danish oil , you can mix wood dye with it though I notice Coloron now do it ready mixed with danish oil in B&Q.

 

[squowse]

all the oils including osmo will darken to a certain extent and pine is naturally yellow as well.
i did my pine stairs with a light oak osmo undercoat before 2 coats of polyx and i'm very happy with it as it covered a lot of the uneven tones (they were also stripped).
you could do a test with polyurethane water based aka "quick drying" varnish. this gives a very natural uncoated look. test a sample of pine or on an area you can sand off again easily if you don't like it.