Struggling to finish pine scaffold boards nicely (dye, stain etc.)

robodelfy

robodelfy

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Hi
I've made a desk, coffee table and shelves out of new kiln dried scaffold boards. I planed them down and sanded from 80 to 320, so they are extremely smooth. I do not like the very light and yellow look of pine, and wanted to darken them to something more like oak. I so far have tried Liberon Light Oak dyes, the water based one (horrible and green) and the spirit based one, which was ok in colour. But the main issue has been blotchiness and still looking too yellow.

I've read a lot, and in the US they seem to use a pre stain conditioner, but here most people say use a sanding sealer. So I tried with sanding sealer, letting it dry and then applying the dye, using the dye straight after the sealer, rubbing down the sealer with 320 then dying, and without any sealer. I'm not really happy with any of it! it still comes out more blotchy than I'd like

Am I missing something? is there a way to darken pine nicely? Maybe I need to try a a different brand, but its getting expensive! Water or spirit based? Any recommendations? I wonder if its because I'm not using a dark enough dye, and therefore imperfections are more obvious

Any advice would be great
 
I've used Littlefair's water-based stain on reclaimed pallet timber and was pleased with it - but then I wasn't aiming for anything too specific and the timber is relatively rough. It's on wall clad with the stuff and we wanted a slightly random look so bought 4 shades of brown and mixed up different batches to give a mixture of brown shades.
 
Thanks everyone, I've ordered some Osmo Polyx tinted oil samples, and will see if they give me any more joy. I might always try this idea too of mixing danish oil with dye
 
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