What type of old pine is this?

[Horsecroft88]

Nice looking chest you have there, it definitely looks like kauri to me, though perhaps hoop at a pinch. The grain/colour of timber, even in its raw state reminds me very much of the kauri pine duchess I previously restored. I have added one pic of the duchess and 2 of a kauri dresser top I am restoring. I tried to add another pic of the duchess, but it seems to be proving impossible to do so. Damn the changes to the forum, this adding picture process is so harder to achieve now.

Anyway for $100 I reckon you have got yourself a very decent purchase and it will look superb once finished, far better than in that horrid green colour. Well done.

Thanks Rozza, the duchess was the first antique I ever bought and I never got around to restoring it, until relatively recently. I must have owned it in stripped form for some 20 + years. I ended up re-polishing and selling it at Auction (didn't get much for it, though later saw it in an antique shop for around $750 !!). I sold it along with two other chests and a large kauri kitchen table, as I had committed to buy and early large cedar chest and needed some help funding its purchase.

Sorry, I had been meaning to reply to your question. I am a traditionalist when it comes to this sort of thing, so to date I have always used orange shellac. I have yet to try out white shellac or even hard shellac. One day perhaps.