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Ground Rules on Wood Finish Terminology!

Okay! So! I talk to a lot of people about wood, and a lot of them don’t know that much about terminology and all that... and that’s okay! Here, I’m gonna lay out some basics about talking about how a piece of wood goes from raw and splintery to shiny and finished! So firstly, “Stain” is not a universal term. When something is rubbed on a piece of wood, and that piece changes color, it’s not automatically a “stain”. Taking a piece of wood and coating it in stuff / doing something to it to protect it from naturally decaying and splintering is called “Finishing” the wood, and that can be done in a ton of different ways. Stain is just one of them, but you can also coat it in various substances like wax, plastic (including epoxy), and oils. So what is wood stain, exactly? Well, wood stain is dye that’s applied to the wood that changes the color. You can buy stain in just about any color you want, from natural wood colors like walnut and cherry to completely artificial colors like blue! Notably, wood stain is sort of a sore spot for fine craftspeople, because using wood stain to disguise one piece of wood for another (staining poplar wood to look like walnut, for example) is almost always obvious to someone with experience, and it often muddies up the grain. If you want a specific color of wood, it likely exists (Check out the wood database here and search through all the possible colors for a good time!). If it doesn't exist or you cant find it in your area, consider whether available wood species would create the same effect, or if the project can be modified to fit those instead, it could lead you down some cool paths! At the end of the day though, it’s your project, so use your best judgment. What about other finishes? What else is out there? Well, there are waxes like Renaissance Wax and Odie’s Oil, which you apply to the surface and buff out, which soaks into and protects the wood, but may need to be re-applied every so often. There are also plastic products like Polyurethane, Spar Urethane, and epoxy based finishes, which usually change the color less than other finishes while offering superior protection. You can also look into using shellac, whitewash, linseed oil, and / or my personal favorite, laquer. This really just scrapes the surface though, and if you’re willing to dig for it, there’s a whole world of wood finishes out there waiting to be tried!  Thanks for hearing me out! :)

P.S: If you actually read this whole thing, reach out! I wanna know why! I need more woodworking people on here!!

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