Hi guys, first post here and thanks in advance for any help I have just taken delivery of a dining room table we had made, the top is pine and was meant to be oiled and much darker than what we’ve ended up with. I panicked the kids might ruin the unfinished timber so quickly got a coat of danish oil on it. Problem is we hate the light colour but I’ve now realised I should have stained/dyed first then oiled. Nothing will really penetrate it now. So... from what I’ve read I think I need to use white spirit/danish oil remover and scrub off as much as possible with fine steel wool, then re-sand and start again. Could anyone offer any advice on if this sounds correct, or if I should be doing something different? Many thanks!
Pine will darken with time but you have to be patient! IMHO, stained pine looks artificial. However, any of the oil treatments, (danish oil, teak oil, linseed oil etc) will darken the wood after several treatments, without the artificial look, and the wood will also continue to darken, with time, under the oil. Danish oil is a little different from the other oils only in that the surface dries to form a sealed, non-tacky surface. In conclusion, my advice is to wait and see (perhaps a year)! You can always rub it down and stain at any time in the future.