Finishing a cedar easel

Hi everyone
This is my first post and I am a bit of a novice so please excuse the basic nature. I have done a search and couldnt really find a previous thread that addressed my question.
I am building an artist easel for my daughter out of 80 year old cedar architrave that I saved after removing a doorway and windo in my house.
I am at the stage of trying to finish it before final assembly and glueing. My problem is that the wood varies in colour from fairly dark to quite light.
I expect that the best thing is to use a cloth applied stain with perhaps extra coats to bring the lighter bits into line, is that correct?
What grit of sandpaper should I be using prior to a stain finish?
What should I finish the easel with? I am mindful of the fact that the cedar is fairly soft and a hard finish like estapol would chip badly with normal handling, so I was wondering about some other type of finish. Because its an easel, I dont want an oily finish that could damage my daughters artworks.

Clinto

The following comments are my own personal thoughts:

Why use 80 year old timber and then stain it. I would save that for something where I can make use of the timbers natural beauty.


For a stained easel, I'll get some radiata pine and stain that to 'mahogany' or whatever I fancy as it is relatively cheap.


Perhaps that 80 year old cedar would make nice small jewellry boxes or something where one can make the whole article out of one piece of timber and then not have to stain it.

This will be my approach, as I love to preserve old timber in as near to natural finish as I possibly can.


Cya,
Joe

PS. Sorry for not addressing on how to stain, as I really don't have much experience or success with stains. Have done some pine tool handles sanded to 400 with a Wattyl stain and a brush.

I gotta agree with Joe here. Fair enough tarting up pine or whatever with stain - but if it's Australian Red Cedar (which I assume it is), you're working with a beautiful, rare timber that deserves to be appreciated for it's natural variations.

Besides which, short of almost blackening the whole lot I think your chances of getting an even colour are next to zero.

Mate, if you wanna use re-cycled cedar for the easel, then go for it. Its better than the timber being thrown out like most builders do when renovating.!

Though personally I wouldn't try to stain it all to one colour. Lets its naturally personality speak through and inspire the artist. ;)

I found over the years when trying to tone different shades of timber to a similar colour it was easier to (depending on how different the colourings were) add a bit of colour into the topcoat. But that depends on what you intend to finish with as this process works the best when applied with spraygun.

Estapol won't chip badly with normal handling if its been applied correctly. Regardless of how soft the timber is. The timber will be badly bruised before the finish will chip or crack when applied correctly. Note the 'applied correctly' statement... ;) Though finish's like oils (I dislike oil finish's personnally) and wax's take impacts much better that film finish's.

Personnally a few coats of shellac to seal and help even the colouring of the timber then a good finish with wax (like Neils Traditional Wax) will give you a naturally stunning finishing that will last even the worst abuse from an aspiring artist! ;)

Cheers...

Thanks
I appreciate the input
Describing it as 80 year old cedar probably oversells the wood. It was narrow and full of holes and dings which I cut around as best I could. I have saved all of the best, and longer, bits with a view to a better project.
I also wanted it to be light weight for my daughter to carry. Its only a small table mounted easel, not a big floor standing version.