How was this Herirtage wood treated?

I am now starting to look at the door and window frames of our house. We have bough a 1912 Edwardian Federation House (Western Australia - Fremantle). House is within 1km of the ocean, and on a heavy traffic two laned road.

The door frames appears to be a mixture of Jarrah and Colonial Pine (after test sanding). The door appears to be colonial pine (after test sanding). Over the last 100 yrs the woods have virtually turned a dark brown or grey colour.

I can't tell if the woods have ever been varnished or oiled. I can see no tell tell signs of flaked varnish or wood treatment. Just layer upon layer of dirt, grime, soot etc.

Is there anybody who would know from a historical point of view, how ealry heritage doors and frames were treated?

Secondly: how should i treat? oil or varnish.

I want to bring back the original colour of the wood.

I can't say precisely how they might have been finished in all instances nor in your specific case. However, in terms of the use of colonial pine, I am assuming you actually mean baltic pine, which was extensively used for joinery purposes, as well as oregan, kauri, over the years.

In addition, I am assuming you mean the external joinery surfaces; in general door frames, doors, and windows were all painted rather than treated with varnish or oil finishes. The reason for this is the durability of painted finishes over the other sorts and secondly, treated raw timbers was generally considered unfinished.

Not withstanding this, certainly on many buildings the front door, especially if not too exposed to the elements could have been "polished" as a feature. The problem being that over the years and if not regularly maintained, the finish breaks down due to oxidising agents, sunlight, atmospheric pollutants, as well as salty air etc etc. and as such the finish considerably darkens and/or may even grey off.

To restore the door's appearance therefore will necessitate cleaning off the old and tired surface, sanding if it is possible (by hand preferably, than machine ie. orbital sanders, and definitely not belt sanders or disc sanders on pine) or alternatively some sort of chemical stripping. If the finish was a shellac finish originally you could try metho to see if it moves it but it is unlikely it will. Personally, I would use a normal paint stripper you can buy from Bunnings/mitre 10 etc. and paint on and scrub back with coarse steel wool, then apply a neutralising finish (ie metho) and clean off with water. Once dry sand to get the desired smoothness you seek, before re-coating with a new finish. I have read a lot of negative comments in the past re the use of chemical strippers but having used such treatments over the past 2o+ years on a huge range of old timbers (pines, cedar, oak etc) and antique furniture I have restored, I think this is a load of rubbish.

I am not a fan of varnishes as with age they can peel which is a real pain in the a#*se, but an oiled finish in my view should give you the desired result you seek. Tung oil I think would be the best option.

I have just recently re done the front, rear and French Doors of my 1840 home (they are all baltic/huon pine) and have also done the front door of my other colonial property (1826) cedar 6 panel door and side huon pine panels in Tung oil. The finish needs to be applied at least I think 3-4 times to give sufficient coating and depth to provide a decent shine and protection.

While other sorts of oils are ok (ie. Danish, Linseed etc) are ok I don't think they would really stand weathering.

Hope that helps a little.