we are building a small Honest Abe log cabin. i do not want to finish the pine floors or any of the interior wood with polyurethane. someone suggested using penetrating oils and/or boiled linseed oil with beeswax thinned with ordorless mineral spirits.
i would assume the beeswax would help keep moisture from the floor. (wet and muddy boots)
any suggestions: will this work, which brands , and etc! using a pecan stain on the pine flooring was suggested. this must be a nice color for pine? also, suggested an ipswich pine stain. is this a color or a brand name?
we are trying to achieve a very rustic, cabin look.. something right out of the Grand Tetons, only here in Illinois.
Replies
Lana,
I can't speak to your stain questions, you know what you like and should be able get the right color with some test scraps. Someone here will certainly come by with the proper medium to carry that color. However, check out these stairs by a member here. They sure fit the bill.
http://quittintime.infopop.cc/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Gallery&Number=7077&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
thanks for the photo. the stairway is great. i actually had thought that maybe i could just "do nothing" to the floor. just let it oxidize. that is the look i am after. that warm natural wood. and think of all the work i would save myself. i could throw my fishing pole into the pond instead of working on that floor.
i am very fond of pine, (have it painted in my "real"house) but my husband and i were in TN this past weekend. and found a place that sells flooring. they had the usual oak, maple and etc. but also carried cherry. you could purchase finished and unfinished. how would the cherry wood oxidize?
thank you for the reply. i really think i wanted someone to tell me to leave it alone.
Natural cherry is rather bland. Oiled up (clear stain, oil or even a finish will bring out it's beauty. Remember of course no finish means all natural or other drips will stain it.........coffee, red wine.....Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
All wood oxidizes over time. Plus the effect of air-born oils and grease plus dust and so forth. All this combines with patience to give wood that patina you speak of.
Wood stain is nothing more than our attempt--rather successful, actually--to speed up this process, being made mostly of oils and various types of things one might call dirt under other circumstances.
Obviously, hardwoods will wear better than the pine. But both will age quite nicely if you give them the time to do so....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Ipswich Pine is a colour name for Minwax brand transparent penetrating wood stain. This is a high-quality oil-based stain which I have used more than once on floors for the colour. http://www.minwax.com
The floor finish is something else again. If you don't want to use polyurethane-based floor finishes, you will have to resign yourself to relatively rapid wear and tear on the floor--we're talking a couple of years and the wood will have been worn right through the stain in high-traffic areas, even if you remove those 'muddy boots' upon entering.
You can get a beautiful finish with various oils--teak oil is among the best and easiest--but most oil finishes are a lot of work and are nowhere near as tough as poly. Old-fashioned (non-polyurethane) varnishes give an unmatchable depth and warmth of colour even without stain...but they also do not tough foot traffic as well as poly.
IMO, if this is to be a really basic log cabin, don't finish the floor at all; just sand it so you won't get splinters in your tootsies, then have some patience and allow oxidation, smoke, and dirt to have their way with the wood. You'll eventually have a very natural looking floor with your traffic patterns apparent but not screaming in your face....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
excuse me, dinosaur. your reply went to calvin.
I have a true 175 year old log house. The floors are white oak and hickory on the ground floor, and Pine upstairs. As far as I can tell, most of it has no finish at all. Just grime.One room tho', had the area around where a rug used to be ( or more likely linoleum) painted a nice school bus yellow! Thank God, most of it has wore away...My plan is to clean it up well, when the rest of the nasty work is done, and just use Boiled Linseed oil and Turpentine.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Restoring, Remodeling, Reclaiming The Quality..