# Color matching aged interior pine



## Tradesman (Mar 25, 2013)

Looked at a job recently in a 6 year old log home with white pine t & g v-match on the interior partitions/ceilings. Several pieces of v-match, in prominent locations, of course, need to be replaced due to recent damage. Finish throughout is oil base poly over bare wood, no stain. After 6 years, all surfaces are nicely ambered and new wood will not be. Would you:

A) Just poly the new wood and let it blend in over time (i.e. years).

B) Stain and poly new wood to match the color of the existing.


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## wills fresh coat (Nov 17, 2011)

Tradesman said:


> Looked at a job recently in a 6 year old log home with white pine t & g v-match on the interior partitions/ceilings. Several pieces of v-match, in prominent locations, of course, need to be replaced due to recent damage. Finish throughout is oil base poly over bare wood, no stain. After 6 years, all surfaces are nicely ambered and new wood will not be. Would you:
> 
> A) Just poly the new wood and let it blend in over time (i.e. years).
> 
> B) Stain and poly new wood to match the color of the existing.


We have ran into this a time or two, your best bet is to use stain and match the new boards as close as you can. Without seeing it I can't recommend a color.....good luck

Just putting poly on it won't work IMO, some polys will yellow different over time. Plus you have the time difference
What ever method you decide to use be sure to try some samples on scrape wood before you do a large area


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## BrushJockey (Mar 15, 2009)

I use a little stain in the finish to tone it up. Experiment- you could use tints, Pecan gives a little gray to it. 
You could also use amber shellac- but then you would need to coat it with Universal ( dewaxed) sanding sealer shellac to be compatible with poly.


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## Andyman (Feb 21, 2009)

Going along with this thread, I have a piece of furniture that is maple with a clear finish. I dont know what kind of finish it was. It was stored by a window and now it is partially yellowed from the UV. How would you go about refinishing it to make it uniform? Strip and refinish, color match on a scrap?


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## Tradesman (Mar 25, 2013)

Hey, you hijackin' my thread?

Tough call on that one. If it is solid lumber, I would say strip, sand to uniform color, refinish. If it's veneered, careful sanding would be in order. Trying to touch up might be hard to end up without a line where the yellowing stops.

It MIGHT be possible to blend a touch-up (although such a large area would be challenging) with some of the Mohawk products (http://www.mohawk-finishing.com/) but I have to wonder if the touched-up portion would react differently to the sun in the future.

Actually, this is what prompted me to question staining a few pieces of v-match in a wall in the first place. However, in thinking about it, when I was doing antique restoration years ago, I used to do this all the time when a part needed to be replaced with new lumber and never had a problem.

Maybe you could mask off the yellowed portion, turn the piece upside down and put it back in front of the window. I can't make up my mind whether or not this is a serious suggestion, but it is certainly the least labor intensive and might actually work!


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## NCPaint1 (Aug 6, 2009)

Try amber shellac


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## slinger58 (Feb 11, 2013)

This may sound crazy, but Minwax Polyshades "Antique Walnut" works really well in this situation. It may take more than one coat to match the depth of the ambering, depending on the age of the wood you are matching.


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## Tradesman (Mar 25, 2013)

Slinger

Actually that doesn't sound crazy at all; don't know why I didn't think of it. I re-colored some kitchen cabinets for a customer last year with PolyShades and they came out great! 

I have also tinted regular poly to match a repair for a broken piece of a horse cart a couple years back. I just used some artist's oil colors that I got at Wal-Mart. I keep them in the truck for tinting glazing compound to fill nail holes in stained trim. Can match virtually any shade.

Guess I'll have to get to work making some color samples!


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## slinger58 (Feb 11, 2013)

Tradesman,
The "crazy" is that Antique Walnut matches ambered pine so well. Who would have thought it? I've added stain to poly before to give it color in an attempt to match an existing surface, but somehow stumbled on this for ambered pine. Artist oil added to glazing compound for colored putty?
Now that is creative! I'm starting to like this forum more and more every day. Thanks to all you kindred spirits! :thumbup:


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## Scotiadawg (Dec 5, 2011)

slinger58 said:


> Tradesman,
> The "crazy" is that Antique Walnut matches ambered pine so well. Who would have thought it? I've added stain to poly before to give it color in an attempt to match an existing surface, but somehow stumbled on this for ambered pine._ Artist oil added to glazing compoun_d for colored putty?
> Now that is creative! I'm starting to like this forum more and more every day. Thanks to all you kindred spirits! :thumbup:


Back in the day we always used tints to color our own putty to color match different woods, sometimes have 3 or 4 different colored puttys for one set of cabinets. Stain then clear coat to get the color of the wood than color the putty to match. :thumbsup:


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## Tradesman (Mar 25, 2013)

One thing about using glazing compound for filling nail holes- sometimes you will find that the compound is too oily and makes a mess in your hand and on the wood. Just add some powdered white chalkline chalk (I found some at Lowe's) and it will soak up the oil. If you get stuck without any chalk, and need to fill some holes, mix up a bit and let it sit on a scrap of cardboard for a while, which will soak up the excess oil. The chalk works better though.


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## BrushJockey (Mar 15, 2009)

I have used powdered mud instead of chalk - also works.


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## Scotiadawg (Dec 5, 2011)

BrushJockey said:


> I have used powdered mud instead of chalk - also works.


we use Bond 90. back when putty still came in plastic pouches it was often very oily and required a bit of sumpin to stiffen it up:thumbsup:


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## NCPaint1 (Aug 6, 2009)

Scotiadawg said:


> we use Bond 90. back when putty still came in plastic pouches it was often very oily and required a bit of sumpin to stiffen it up:thumbsup:


Someone bring this guy back to the Old People thread...how did he get out anyways? I coulda swore I heard an "open door" alarm...


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## Scotiadawg (Dec 5, 2011)

NCPaint1 said:


> Someone bring this guy back to the Old People thread...how did he get out anyways? I coulda swore I heard an "open door" alarm...


They aint no trappin this ol dawg ! sides, it was startin to smell funny in there with all them old fellers !:thumbsup:


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## squid (Dec 25, 2012)

wood conditioner + Ipswich Pine + poly x time


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## Gough (Nov 24, 2010)

Tradesman said:


> One thing about using glazing compound for filling nail holes- sometimes you will find that the compound is too oily and makes a mess in your hand and on the wood. Just add some powdered white chalkline chalk (I found some at Lowe's) and it will soak up the oil. If you get stuck without any chalk, and need to fill some holes, mix up a bit and let it sit on a scrap of cardboard for a while, which will soak up the excess oil. The chalk works better though.


Whiting works even better. And since it's what is used to make the putty in the first place, you can be sure that there won't be some funky reaction that means a call back and several days digging putty out of nail holes:whistling2:

And I second NC's suggestion of amber shellac, or even the less-refined versions. We also keep buttonlac and seedlac on hand in case we need to mix up something with a little more color.


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## Tradesman (Mar 25, 2013)

Gough

I had remembered reading an article in JLC a few years ago on using whiting to dry up the oil in glazing compound when using it as putty. I searched and searched for a source, couldn't find any. However, I did find some important information: whiting is calcium carbonate; chalk is calcium carbonate!


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## cdaniels (Oct 20, 2012)

Gough said:


> Whiting works even better. And since it's what is used to make the putty in the first place, you can be sure that there won't be some funky reaction that means a call back and several days digging putty out of nail holes:whistling2:
> 
> And I second NC's suggestion of amber shellac, or even the less-refined versions. We also keep buttonlac and seedlac on hand in case we need to mix up something with a little more color.


Joint compound dust works too.I have used it many times.


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## slinger58 (Feb 11, 2013)

cdaniels said:


> Joint compound dust works too.I have used it many times.


Same here.


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## woodcoyote (Dec 30, 2012)

cdaniels said:


> Joint compound dust works too.I have used it many times.


Got any pictures? interested to see the result.


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## woodcoyote (Dec 30, 2012)

Tradesman said:


> Looked at a job recently in a 6 year old log home with white pine t & g v-match on the interior partitions/ceilings. Several pieces of v-match, in prominent locations, of course, need to be replaced due to recent damage. Finish throughout is oil base poly over bare wood, no stain. After 6 years, all surfaces are nicely ambered and new wood will not be. Would you:
> 
> A) Just poly the new wood and let it blend in over time (i.e. years).
> 
> B) Stain and poly new wood to match the color of the existing.



My honest opinion, I wouldn't want do leave wood unmatched and let it "try to blend" because it may never catch up with the 'aging' currently occurring. 

My take on it would be this: Go to Sherwin or whoever you trust does a GOOD job at color matching. Get a gel stain color matched to the current wood color. Gel stain, wait 24 - 48 hours, clear coat over it with a water-white (clear) finish. Done.


Good luck, let us know how it came out!


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## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

squid said:


> wood conditioner + Ipswich Pine + poly x time


 Yes, Ipswich pine has worked well for me. 

I've mixed it around half and half with natural stain ( more or less depending on the match), several times to match old pine. 
It just seems to have that tone.


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## Moonstruck (Jul 31, 2013)

If you need a closer match than amber shellac, you can custom tint an oil-based poly using universal colorants. Your best bet is to use yellow oxide and possibly a drop or two of raw umber.


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## Tradesman (Mar 25, 2013)

*And the winner is...*

Finally a follow-up to my original post- I had my paint guru tint some oil poly to match a piece of the original pine v-match that was torn out. It came out just a shade lighter than the original, which turned out to be perfect. Depending on the depth of color that the surrounding boards called for, I just brushed on as many coats (2-4) as it took to get a good look. I knew we had hit a home run when the guy who installed the new v-match came in and couldn't tell which boards he had replaced. Very satisfying!


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