Quick & easy finish for eastern white pine?

[Jason White]

I'm racing to get a pine dry sink finished in time for Xmas for my lovely wife. Making it out of eastern white pine from a local sawmill.

I'd like for the piece to look like it's been around for awhile -- kinda like how an unfinished piece of pine might look after 10 or 20 years (you know that orange/brown/honey type of color??). Don't really want to stain if I don't have to. Also would love to avoid polyurethane and not have to apply multiple coats and sand in-between. Just not enough time. Tick....tick....tick......

Any suggestions?

Jason

[Jerome Hanby]

Shellac....

[Prashun Patel]

+1 on shellac.

See how Zinsser Sealcoat does ya (from BORG). Cheap and easy. It's dewaxed and slightly blonde. So if you want more protection later, you can put any coat right on top of it.

It's also thin enough to pad.

Danish oil is also easy. Gotta let it dry in between coats longer than shellac, but you have to be a real maroon to mess up the application (although I have managed to do that in the past: Watch for bleeding on opengrained woods and wipe them b4 they gum).

[Joe Cunningham]

I am finishing a piece of pine right now. I have about 1/3 garnet flakes and 2/3 super blonde in about a 2lb cut, and so far it is looking nice. But I already had the flakes.

You might try the Zinsser amber shellac, and mix in different proportions of sealcoat. By itself, even thinned to a 2lb cut, I think the amber might be too much (but try it on some scrap, you might like it). The sealcoat will lighten it up. Or just try the sealcoat by itself.

Nothing quicker than shellac in my experience. And just so long as you don't use it as an actual dry sink, it ought to be fine.

[Scott Holmes]

Zinsser seal coat is dewaxed. Amber and Orange still have the wax so POLY or a water-borne will not work later...

If you want a darker, and it sounds as if you do, get garnet flakes.

Shellac will not darken with age... the pine will darken some.