**Wood Finishing Experiment: Comparing Various Stains and Coatings**

As I embarked on this woodworking project, I was eager to experiment with different stains and coatings to bring out the unique characteristics of various types of wood. My goal was to create a piece that would showcase the beauty of each wood type, while also learning about the best techniques for achieving a desired finish.

One of my earliest experiments involved applying a torch wood finish to a blank slate of pine wood. I was excited to see how this finish would turn out, but unfortunately, it didn't quite meet my expectations. The result was more of a bland, uniform color rather than a deep, rich tone that I had hoped for.

To improve upon this initial attempt, I decided to try a different approach with some green Incredible Hulk stain. This proved to be a good choice, as the finish brought out a nice depth and richness to the wood. However, the results were still not quite what I had envisioned, and I found myself feeling underwhelmed by the final product.

Next, I turned my attention to oak wood, which I had previously attempted to stain but with less-than-stellar results. This time, however, I was determined to do better. I applied a coat of orange stain to one piece of oak and brushed it on another, hoping that these different techniques would yield more desirable results. Unfortunately, the second piece of oak still didn't quite live up to my expectations, and I found myself opting for a simpler solution by applying a coat of polyurethane to it.

In contrast, the poplar wood proved to be a much more challenging subject when it came to staining. Despite using simple finishes, the results were often disappointing, with the stain failing to bring out any real depth or character in the wood. This was especially true for one piece of poplar that I had attempted to stain with the Incredible Hulk finish, which ended up looking dull and lifeless.

On the other hand, the Gator finish proved to be a game-changer when it came to staining various types of wood. The natural texture of the alligator hide brought out a unique beauty in the wood, especially on one piece of poplar that I had stained with this particular coat. This success was all the more impressive given that I had not initially set out to use the Gator finish.

Moving on to cedar wood, which I had found to be particularly appealing due to its natural grain pattern and ridges, I decided to try a simple finish to bring out its full potential. To my delight, this proved to be an excellent choice, as the finish enhanced the beauty of the wood without overpowering it. In fact, one piece of cedar even looked so good that I ended up shooting a second video using a different technique.

Speaking of techniques, I wanted to experiment with some different methods for applying stains and coatings. One tool that caught my eye was an orange-bristled brush on my drill, which proved to be incredibly effective at applying stain evenly and consistently. This simple tool has since become one of my go-to favorites when it comes to finishing wood.

Finally, I couldn't resist the urge to try a few unconventional techniques in my experiment. One such technique involved using a Sunbleach finish to enhance the natural color of the wood. While this didn't quite work out as planned for one piece of cedar, I was pleased with the results on another piece that had been treated in this way.

**Tools and Materials**

* Brush: Orange-bristled brush on drill (medium grit)

* Stains:

+ Incredible Hulk stain

+ Green Incredible Hulk stain

+ Orange stain

+ Sunbleach stain

* Coatings:

+ Polyurethane

* Wood types:

+ Pine

+ Oak

+ Poplar

+ Cedar

**Conclusion**

While this experiment was not without its setbacks, I was pleased to discover that certain techniques and tools can greatly enhance the beauty of various types of wood. By experimenting with different stains and coatings, I was able to bring out unique characteristics in each piece, even when some results were less than expected.

As always, I encourage readers to share their own experiences and insights in the comments section below. If you're interested in learning more about these techniques and tools, be sure to check out the links provided in the description for further information. Until next time, happy building!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys on this episode of build dad build we are going to answer some questions you guys had one of the big questions that was asked on my video on how to burn wood was what kind of wood that was that wood was pine like this pine and cedar are normally the the easiest to do a torch word finish to they have wide grain patterns they have a good variation of soft cellulose material and hard cellulose material so you can kind of scrape out that inside and get that contrast so we're going to do today is see what torch would finish looks like on different kinds of wood so I just went to a local big-box store and picks and picked up just the readily available woods that they had there seriously we got we got a good old pine we have red oak we have poplar which I'm nursing popular that dark it looks like this but the seven pieces she dreamed that so I picked it up and then from a previous event build I have some leftover see her fence pickets traditional shitty bond is done on cedar and I think it's like specifically like Japanese cedar but I don't know what the difference is between dad and regular cedar but we'll see what how it turns out on just cedar I made some planters with this not too long ago but I didn't go with a real deep burn on so we'll do a deep burn on these and see what it looks like we're also going to introduce a new tool I use this in my chair video which I'll link up there I think it's there right it's just a nylon brush on a drill it makes removing char a lot easier a lot faster makes a huge mess I'm going to use the cordless drill for this project but I would see if you're doing something like the chairs to use a corded drill if you have one I actually fried a battery so okay that being said let's light some stuff on fire all right that's first burn and first brush so we've got your pine that's been scraped which looks pretty pretty much like expected pretty much like what we're used to and we've got pine - a gator fish which is kind of the before product next we've got red oak you know the red oak it looks alright it's not great there's just not a ball I mean right oh it's hard it's just that there's not a whole lot of soft material removed so it gives a different kind of texture to it and then here's one where I just kind of wrapped in black I didn't even brush this one alright next poplar poplar just turns black I guess it's just the tight green but it just literally like as soon as it starts to get a burn it it's just black but everything I think the best candidate for like a gator finish is poplar for that same reason because you're not picking up a lot of the grain so you're just just get that in your pattern and then we have my two cedar boards which like to get kind of the same thing with both of them now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go back for a second burn on some of these boards I had several comments where people said that they weren't getting to finish the money and they wouldn't know if they weren't burning it enough don't scraping it enough the thing is if you don't get the look that you're going for the first time you can always burn it again also if you're real close if you're ninety percent let's say that you'd be your darks just aren't as dark as you'd like them you can always take a little torch that's the reason I have this little torch with a little in this just to come in and just kind of pick up those ridges and make those a little black so let's get to work okay second fern done and then brushed was gonna brush she didn't brush what I wasn't gonna brush I don't know how much that I'm gonna show it's a little boring after a while again I don't know how easily this translates onto the camera but there is some good ridges in here a little bit of schmutz but there's some good ridges where that soft cellulose material dug out next we have the two pieces of oak one I really like so if you just hit oak with the torch and don't touch it with the brush it just gets this nice dark even black up 36 you know now if you take the brush to it yeah it's decent um it does get a little bit of texture but I don't know how much the texture really add so the black goes right just getting a coat of poly will probably feel a little stain on this one to see if we can pop it out a little bit do anything funky next a poplar and honestly as far as as far as torch wood finish pop what kind of sucks it just gets kind of blah like I said I mean maybe if I put like some simple finish on there and I'll pick up the green I I don't know if I'm super hopeful on that however it does Gator really really good I don't even know if you're gonna be able to see that in the garage the light probably just put a coat of poly on it for the video mainly because they don't have any rise but that would probably like impregnate really well with resin and be a much more solid piece evident cake did a really good video on using some penetrating epoxy I will link that in the description down below but future project deep penetrating breast and finally we have sedum and I can see why cedar is the show should be bond wood of choice you can scrape it and get these really good ridges and get that good grain pattern because it does have soft and hard cellulose material but it also get yours like a mofo it just looks really good it's only got one thing left to do you know what that is alright guys so what's worse than your neighbor mowing their lawn while you're trying to film then your neighbor is cleaning the carpets and they have that truck down those runs yay so we have our results the first I just wanted to mention the brush that was on my drill yesterday the orange one it's kind of a medium grit there's three different grits there's a gray which is more aggressive and there is a blue which is not as aggressive the gray is really good if you want to really like kind of dig out some material the orange is probably my best all around and I don't really use the blue one and again if I didn't say before I'll link to those brushes in the description down below go check them out but now let's talk about those finishes with the pine I wanted to experiment with just some different colors that I haven't used before so I did a green or an Incredible Hulk well that's gonna pick up on camera I have some really good depth to it we have the orange stain when I put this on it didn't look very orange II but it definitely dried I've definitely dried with some more of that orange color to it next we have the oak the one of the Oaks I burnt again brushed again and it didn't really do it much justice so I hit it with some of the Sun each scene I was really kind of hoping to pick up some more of the contrast in there you didn't get that nice grain in there with the white highlights so the other piece of oak I just put a coat of poly on it so that's the one that's just the jet black I would say out of all all of the woods this stayed the flattest I wasn't really worried about him warping too much but the ODE even with high heat stay relatively flat so next we have the poplar Gator fin I think it looks pretty good you get that nice you know alligator texture to it then let's move on to the cedar I went ahead and hit one of the cedar pieces with some simple finish came out pretty good it has a little bit less contrast than I would like but it looks really rich the surprise smash hit that I even did off camera because I was just it was just a test I didn't think it was gonna do it's gonna look very good and up looking pretty awesome is the other piece of cedar I took it down to Gator and then I hit it with the Sun bleach check that out now for the one that didn't do so hot and that's the poplar that I tried to hit with the simple finish even simple finish couldn't tell me that it didn't go black very well it didn't pull out the green very well so you guys don't have enough follow me very long for it all but if it's at all you should definitely hit that subscribe button it's simple finish makes everything better so if you have a piece of wood it just kind of it's it's just not popping you hit with a little simple finish normally it does wonders but man this poplar is just nuts not loving it so I gotta say on the poplar except maybe for just the Gator Gator doesn't look too bad but see if you're gonna go Gator I would do some cedar that looks just awesome alright guys there any questions about what we did here today leaving the comments down below I'll try to get you an answer well I think next I'm gonna make a table baby with a Punisher skull in land yes a table if you like what I'm doing here hit that like button if you haven't yet subscribed for for more content until next time we will we'll be here all in the fort down have a good onewhat's up guys on this episode of build dad build we are going to answer some questions you guys had one of the big questions that was asked on my video on how to burn wood was what kind of wood that was that wood was pine like this pine and cedar are normally the the easiest to do a torch word finish to they have wide grain patterns they have a good variation of soft cellulose material and hard cellulose material so you can kind of scrape out that inside and get that contrast so we're going to do today is see what torch would finish looks like on different kinds of wood so I just went to a local big-box store and picks and picked up just the readily available woods that they had there seriously we got we got a good old pine we have red oak we have poplar which I'm nursing popular that dark it looks like this but the seven pieces she dreamed that so I picked it up and then from a previous event build I have some leftover see her fence pickets traditional shitty bond is done on cedar and I think it's like specifically like Japanese cedar but I don't know what the difference is between dad and regular cedar but we'll see what how it turns out on just cedar I made some planters with this not too long ago but I didn't go with a real deep burn on so we'll do a deep burn on these and see what it looks like we're also going to introduce a new tool I use this in my chair video which I'll link up there I think it's there right it's just a nylon brush on a drill it makes removing char a lot easier a lot faster makes a huge mess I'm going to use the cordless drill for this project but I would see if you're doing something like the chairs to use a corded drill if you have one I actually fried a battery so okay that being said let's light some stuff on fire all right that's first burn and first brush so we've got your pine that's been scraped which looks pretty pretty much like expected pretty much like what we're used to and we've got pine - a gator fish which is kind of the before product next we've got red oak you know the red oak it looks alright it's not great there's just not a ball I mean right oh it's hard it's just that there's not a whole lot of soft material removed so it gives a different kind of texture to it and then here's one where I just kind of wrapped in black I didn't even brush this one alright next poplar poplar just turns black I guess it's just the tight green but it just literally like as soon as it starts to get a burn it it's just black but everything I think the best candidate for like a gator finish is poplar for that same reason because you're not picking up a lot of the grain so you're just just get that in your pattern and then we have my two cedar boards which like to get kind of the same thing with both of them now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go back for a second burn on some of these boards I had several comments where people said that they weren't getting to finish the money and they wouldn't know if they weren't burning it enough don't scraping it enough the thing is if you don't get the look that you're going for the first time you can always burn it again also if you're real close if you're ninety percent let's say that you'd be your darks just aren't as dark as you'd like them you can always take a little torch that's the reason I have this little torch with a little in this just to come in and just kind of pick up those ridges and make those a little black so let's get to work okay second fern done and then brushed was gonna brush she didn't brush what I wasn't gonna brush I don't know how much that I'm gonna show it's a little boring after a while again I don't know how easily this translates onto the camera but there is some good ridges in here a little bit of schmutz but there's some good ridges where that soft cellulose material dug out next we have the two pieces of oak one I really like so if you just hit oak with the torch and don't touch it with the brush it just gets this nice dark even black up 36 you know now if you take the brush to it yeah it's decent um it does get a little bit of texture but I don't know how much the texture really add so the black goes right just getting a coat of poly will probably feel a little stain on this one to see if we can pop it out a little bit do anything funky next a poplar and honestly as far as as far as torch wood finish pop what kind of sucks it just gets kind of blah like I said I mean maybe if I put like some simple finish on there and I'll pick up the green I I don't know if I'm super hopeful on that however it does Gator really really good I don't even know if you're gonna be able to see that in the garage the light probably just put a coat of poly on it for the video mainly because they don't have any rise but that would probably like impregnate really well with resin and be a much more solid piece evident cake did a really good video on using some penetrating epoxy I will link that in the description down below but future project deep penetrating breast and finally we have sedum and I can see why cedar is the show should be bond wood of choice you can scrape it and get these really good ridges and get that good grain pattern because it does have soft and hard cellulose material but it also get yours like a mofo it just looks really good it's only got one thing left to do you know what that is alright guys so what's worse than your neighbor mowing their lawn while you're trying to film then your neighbor is cleaning the carpets and they have that truck down those runs yay so we have our results the first I just wanted to mention the brush that was on my drill yesterday the orange one it's kind of a medium grit there's three different grits there's a gray which is more aggressive and there is a blue which is not as aggressive the gray is really good if you want to really like kind of dig out some material the orange is probably my best all around and I don't really use the blue one and again if I didn't say before I'll link to those brushes in the description down below go check them out but now let's talk about those finishes with the pine I wanted to experiment with just some different colors that I haven't used before so I did a green or an Incredible Hulk well that's gonna pick up on camera I have some really good depth to it we have the orange stain when I put this on it didn't look very orange II but it definitely dried I've definitely dried with some more of that orange color to it next we have the oak the one of the Oaks I burnt again brushed again and it didn't really do it much justice so I hit it with some of the Sun each scene I was really kind of hoping to pick up some more of the contrast in there you didn't get that nice grain in there with the white highlights so the other piece of oak I just put a coat of poly on it so that's the one that's just the jet black I would say out of all all of the woods this stayed the flattest I wasn't really worried about him warping too much but the ODE even with high heat stay relatively flat so next we have the poplar Gator fin I think it looks pretty good you get that nice you know alligator texture to it then let's move on to the cedar I went ahead and hit one of the cedar pieces with some simple finish came out pretty good it has a little bit less contrast than I would like but it looks really rich the surprise smash hit that I even did off camera because I was just it was just a test I didn't think it was gonna do it's gonna look very good and up looking pretty awesome is the other piece of cedar I took it down to Gator and then I hit it with the Sun bleach check that out now for the one that didn't do so hot and that's the poplar that I tried to hit with the simple finish even simple finish couldn't tell me that it didn't go black very well it didn't pull out the green very well so you guys don't have enough follow me very long for it all but if it's at all you should definitely hit that subscribe button it's simple finish makes everything better so if you have a piece of wood it just kind of it's it's just not popping you hit with a little simple finish normally it does wonders but man this poplar is just nuts not loving it so I gotta say on the poplar except maybe for just the Gator Gator doesn't look too bad but see if you're gonna go Gator I would do some cedar that looks just awesome alright guys there any questions about what we did here today leaving the comments down below I'll try to get you an answer well I think next I'm gonna make a table baby with a Punisher skull in land yes a table if you like what I'm doing here hit that like button if you haven't yet subscribed for for more content until next time we will we'll be here all in the fort down have a good one\n"