Restoring Painted Silky Oak plywood

[hap97]

Nice stripping job.
What was under the paint? Maybe an old stain varnish. If so, then it has stained and darkened the timber, and will remain this colour unless well sanded.
I would be inclined to sand lightly with 120 or finer and use Feast Watson "Old Baltic Pine" stain. This is an oil based stain and will tend to blend any blotches and dark areas into a basic brown-pine colour. I use it a lot before the final finishing like Satinproof.
hap

[base454]

Thanks. Yeah it was stained/varnished underneath, I managed to get back to bare wood on the solid parts, though the plywood is stained, im going to carefully try and get it out, because I really wanted to put a clear finish on it. But if you think "Old Baltic Pine" will smooth out the coloured areas and not loose much of the original wood colour I might go with that. Will it "old baltic pine" stain it a lot or will it retain most of the original colour of the silky oak, i.e. is it quite transperant?

What do you think of putting "satin proof" straight onto the sanded silky oak.

By the way I really appreciate your (hap97) and everyones elses advice. Its been invaluable.

Cheers

[hap97]

The stain only colours the timber. It is not a finish in itself.
Clear finish such as the polyurathane types (Wattyl Estapol, Feast Watson Satinproof) gives the timber a tough resistant surface, and the underlying timber grain, colour etc can be seen. Most oil based poluyurathanes will also darken the timber. Use a bit of spit on wood and see how the colour darkens.
http://www.feastwatson.com.au/ClearSatinproof.asp
http://www.wattyl.com.au/DIY/Pages/Estapol.aspx

Many times the old stain has soked well into the wood and is difficult to remove, leave it as a feature of the unit. Old items seldom can be finished to an expected outcome. There are too many unexpected variables.

I believe the Old Baltic Pine is a good neutral brown and allows the underlying features to show through and blends out any changes in colour from the stripping. Try it on a drawer, either back or front, it can always be sanded off again if not wanted.
http://www.feastwatson.com.au/Woodst...alticStain.asp