Reply To: Non-darkening natural finish?
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It’s common for oils of various kinds to react with and darken wood. The degree of darkening depends upon the type of wood and the grain. Wiping a clear oil onto cherry, for example, often leads to darkening. Since cherry has complicated grain and since oils readily move into the grain, the result can be heavy blotching even though no color was applied at all. It’s frustrating when you know about the blotchiness of cherry, choose to play it safe with a clear finish, and get a big blotchy mess anyway.
So, you need to choose something that won’t react with the wood. That’s a matter of experimentation, but as Larry suggested, shellac or a water based finish are both good candidates for an experiment.
I never use BLO for anything. Ever. It takes forever to dry. Other finishes are better and dry thoroughly. It’s all the rage on the web, I know, but I don’t understand why people do it to themselves. It’s only utility is for use under shellac to deepen the grain, but I can do that with better products that work faster, so even then I don’t use it.