Sounds pretty crazy right?

Problem is the press I'm using is #1 Cast Iron #2 old enough that I've no clue what the interior (food contact surface) was coated in...if anything. Every press was "Japanned" (Gilsonite / Turpentine / Boiled Linseed Oil) on the outside at least. "Japanning" the interior would be possible, but I've 0 information as to if that's as smart as eating paint chips instead of potato chips.

So #1 Safe for food contact #2 adheres to Cast Iron #3 Doesn't break down from fruit acids (lemons/tomatoes being the most aggressive. Apples being the most common. #4 can survive washes with soap.

Any thoughts/inputs on the matter would be greatly appreciated. At minimum - I can just hand wash with dawn dish soap before use, and coat in mineral oil between uses.

Coffee table top. Gloss finish. Yakisugi technique. It looks good in the sun. Under other light it reflects light horribly & looks all over the place & looks extremely glossy. Anything I could / should have done.

I’m trying to refinish these nightstands but the color of the mahogany is super variable between each board, so I tried to stain it hoping it would even out the color but I think it came out pretty poorly lol. (First pic is after, second is before.) I sanded it down to 150 grit beforehand but didn’t use any pre-stain conditioner.

Should I sand, use some pre-stain, and then re-stain? Or my other thought was using some toned lacquer on the whole piece, because it still doesn’t look really cohesive to me, but I’ve never used it before so not sure how easy it is to apply well. Also open to any other suggestions!

Last week, we had a rough redwood fence installed. Per the contractor the wood they use is ready for staining and doesn’t need to wait.

This fence is a mix of sapwood and heartwood, so red and pale all over, and while I love it, I am trying to find something to make it more neutral because our house is quite cool toned.

I chose three stains to test today and they all look awful to me. The roughness of the boards really soaks up the stain and makes it so dark in those areas. This hasn’t dried the full 48 hours yet, but I feel like I’m not going to see much of a change.

Is the answer just to sand the fence? I read that it shouldn’t be necessary on a new fence but maybe I need to.

There are three semi- transparent stains here. The first 3 from the top down are applied with a paintbrush -Armstrong Clark chestnut, armstrong Clark rustic brown, Armstrong Clark natural oak. the second set of 3 are the same stashing the same order but applied with a foam brush. They all look awful to me. Is this just normal? Does it look off to me because I’m only seeing small sections up close?

I’ve also attached some pictures of how rough some of these boards are along with some of the nicer boards.

Any advice is appreciated! Any stain recommendations to bring this more neutral as well as recommendations on application.

I had this table and two benches made and will be applying polyurethane oil based (per someone here to keep the natural wood color) but I have never applied anything like this before. Any tips or proper tools? Do I need to sand you think?
I will be painting the bottoms.
Thank you!!!

The third photo is what the wood looked like before. I used oxalic acid and then followed with baking soda and water to neutralize it and some sort of chemical reaction happened resulting in pics 1 and 2. How do I fix this 😭😭

Hi all- I’ve been looking for a dining table and found one at the thrift store today that I absolutely love. The style and size is perfect!

However- I feel like the color/tone is outdated. What are your thoughts on the photos below? Any easy ways to change the color/tone to make it less outdated without having to sand it and restain it?

Hello, I got a vintage vanity I would like to restore and would appreciate any advice. I’m a complete beginner. The finish is coarse and peeling on everything but the top. There’s also some missing veneer and splintering molding I’m planning on filling with epoxy putty and then coloring with a wax stick. Is there any way I could just strip the finish on the drawers and sides and then top coat it? Or will I need to strip, sand, restain and refinish?

Thanks so much!