Staining ply too look like hoop pine

[GregE]

I have made the base of a school style desk from ply. Using a decent piece of solid wood for the front and biscuiting it in. All the visible edges are enclosed so as not to see the ply. i have got a lovely knotted piece of hoop pine for the top section. How would you advise staining the very blonde ply to get a similar finish?

Cheers Greg

[issatree]

Hi Greg,
Very weak Coffee or Tea may do the trick, & Cheap of course.

[shedbound]

depending on the color variance, the ply will darken a little with time

[Berlin]

Greg, is the hoop an old golden piece? I love that colour. The ply is quite possibly hoop pine as well actually just from younger, more quickly grown plantation tree. I would just lightly tea stain it if it's a really jarring colour mismatch but i would try applying your finish to an off cut of the ply and seeing what colour it goes on it's own.

We had a hoop floor laid in a house we were in several years ago and at first it was practically white but after just a few months sunlight had deepened the finsh significantly, to the point that the rugs we had on the floor left neat white ghost images.

Cheers