Trying to get new redwood's color finish close to old redwood - need advice

[Den Rose]

Hi,

I rescued a 17' wall of 58 year old clear all-heart (CAH) redwood (RW) 1x6x8 T&G paneling from my house before it was torn down. After the rescue, I stored it indoors with the "finished" sides facing each other and groups of the pieces wrapped together with stretch wrap. I have a wall in the house I bought recently where I can install it. Due to a number of factors, I need to use new RW for the baseboard and the top cove moulding. There is a lumber yard near me that carries CAH RW where I can get the sizes I need to mill to the shape I need. I am going to use General Finishes Satin Arm-R-Seal (ARS) on the old RW. I don't need any stain and it comes out beautiful.

After sanding off the old stain, the old RW is a rich darkish color due to its age. However, the new RW is lighter naturally. I have tried the ARS on both old and new and of course, the color is not the same. I did pick out some of the richer, darker colored RW at the lumber yard but it's still going to be different unless I do something else. I do have some extra old RW pieces from the house's bathroom if I need them to try things on. I can also go buy some more RW from the lumber yard to try some things. I am having a carpenter install the wood on the wall for me.

I want to see if anyone has any ideas I can try to get the new RW's final color to be somewhat close to the old RW. I went to Rockler today to see what they may have. I am a total newbie about stains and tints. Thanks for any ideas.

[John TenEyck]

I would take a piece of the old wood and give it a really good sanding on the back to see what the color is when you get to fresh wood. If it's close to the color of your new wood then I would just finish everything with Arm-R-Seal and let Mother Nature age the new wood on her own.

If you stain the new wood to match the old wood it will likely end up much darker in a few years. But if the color of the old wood after sanding is still much darker than the new wood, then I guess staining it to something close makes sense.

There is never an absolutely right answer to this dilemma but plenty of wrong ones. The problem is you never know which it is until years later.

John