Colour Correction

[Dovetail]

I've recently completed making a fairly large tool cabinet using the timber from the pallets on which my machinery was delivered about two years ago. The timber had weathered considerably but responded well to the planer. It is European in origin, pine of sorts and very pale - almost white.

The cabinet is meant to look rather rustic but because the timber is so porous, I thought I would seal the outside with shellac. BIG mistake. Dirty yellow, I think describes it.
No worries, I thought, a couple of coats of turps-based baltic stain in Feast & Watson Polyurethane should do the trick. Well, it hasn't! Marginally better, but still ugly.

So, what to do?

1. Use a stronger baltic/poly mix over the top?
2. I want to keep the grain (for what its worth) appearance (see 'rustic' above), so painting is not really an option
3. Never use shellac on pale-coloured timber again
4. Sanding back to raw timber is not really an option

Cheers
Brian

[wisno]

Well it rather difficult situation. It seems the to re sand your old finish is the only option you have.
You may try to do some application on your previous finish, but the result may not satisfy
The yellow color is come from the shellac. If you don't like the yellow you need to uses clear coating such as nc, water based, varnish or polyurethane.
If you like shellac, then you need to use the bleach shellac which has no yellow color.



Good luck

wisno

[Dovetail]

Thanks wisno.

I think I've got this sorted. I used some F&W Varnish and Stain. This has dulled considerably the 'tiger' look I had achieved using the shellac and then adding baltic stain to polyurethane. I'll add a second coat tomorrow and hopefully, that will be that.