Refinishing some old knotty pine


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Old 02-22-18, 04:22 AM
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Refinishing some old knotty pine

Hello,

I removed some old electric baseboard heating from a room with knotty pin paneling. After I removed the units I could see that the wood had never been finished and it look like this:



I highlighted the area that is without finish.

So, then I sanded with 150 grit the unfinished part of the wood and applied one coat of poly. 10 hours later it still looks like this:



What did I do wrong? Or should I wait longer? Seems dry to me, but I would love to fix this. Looks pretty bad.

Thank you for any advice,

Pete
 
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Old 02-22-18, 04:25 AM
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Hmmm

The embedded links to the photos are not working. Sorry, I think you really need to see them to figure out what I did. Trying again

https://www.flickr.com/photos/283179...posted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/283179...posted-public/
 
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Old 02-22-18, 05:19 AM
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It kind of looks to me like you used Minwax Polyshades, not plain old clear Polyurethane. Polyshades is a tinted poly... tinted with stain. (Pigment)
 
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Old 02-22-18, 05:37 AM
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Poly is a clear satin. No minwax was used

Poly is a clear satin. Oil based. No minwax was used
 
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Old 02-22-18, 09:01 AM
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It may be a difficult fix. There are two things going on; the lack of finish and exposure to UV rays. I'd start by sanding it down to fresh wood and then apply your poly/varnish. If you are lucking the color will look ok, if not you''d have to tint the poly slightly to make the unfinished portion blend in. I've never been back to a home where I had to doctor up the finish to hide where pictures, etc. where but I suspect over time those areas might get darker.
 
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Old 02-22-18, 11:30 AM
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Gonna try this with the theory that the wood is really dry and that the oil in the poly was sucked up into the wood:

1. Strip the newly coated surfaces.
2. Sand down to bare wood
3. Clean throughly
4. Apply water based poly
5. Cross fingers

I will let the group know how it came out.

Thanks
 
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Old 02-22-18, 02:15 PM
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Water based poly over raw wood will never give the same look as oil base poly over raw wood. Oil based poly deepens the colors naturally in the wood plus the poly ambers some as it ages. Waterbased poly doesn't change the color of the wood any - you need stain to do that.
 
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Old 02-22-18, 03:06 PM
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I wonder, does the darker area have any correlation with where you sanded the old poly? It could be the scuffing of the old dry poly with 150 (a little rough... 220 is often used between coats) made it more absorbant, and you are seeing a color difference as a result of the new oil based poly "rejuvenating" and highlighting the darkening due to UV. All wood and oil finishes will amber with time. Its very hard to match.
 
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Old 02-23-18, 05:10 AM
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Hello,

I went back and strip and sanded the area again. The I got a wet rag and wiped the area to see what it would look like.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/283179...posted-public/

This looks much better and would most likely be what a water based poly would look like. But before I use a water based poly I am going to get some clear shellac and give that a try as well since it is alcohol based and not oil.

At this point I think we can agree that the wood was so dried out (from being next to electric heaters for 30 years!) the oil in the poly was sucked up and created that dark staining.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/283179...posted-public/

I will keep the group posted as to the results

Pete
 
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Old 02-23-18, 06:50 AM
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Yeah, looks like you can see exactly where the heater pipes were the hottest... it kind of discolored the wood a little.
 
 

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