Watco danish oil did not darken the wood

[ycban]

Hello there, 

I need some advice on what to do. Last weekend I worked on my first ever solo wood project. I was  able to produce a simple sofa table out of cheap pine 2x2s and a 12 inch by 1 inch pine board. Construction looks wood, but I wanted the wood to look darker so I decided to apply Watco Danish Oil. In every single video I saw the oil darkened the wood quite a bit from the light pine color to something more mid tone. However, when I applied the Watco Danish Oil Natural, nothing much happened to my table. You can see more definition on the knots, but little change in coloration. 

The prep consisted of sanding, I applied a coat of wood conditioner and when that dried the danish oil. What did I do wrong? Is there any way I could now stain the wood after applying the oil?

Please help

[RichardA]

Don't take this wrong.  But pine has is own shades, all you did by adding watco Danish oil in "Natural" was to highlight the woods normal color.  Sometimes Youtube is not your friend.  True in this case!  How dark do you want it?  Watco makes a number of good oils that you can use over what you've already used.  they have walnut, Cherry and a few others.  You need to determine the color you want, then find the right  oil, and use it full strength, or lighten it with some of the natural you have left over.  However, I have to tell you, pine has a mind of it's own, sometimes it does what you want other times it just flat out ignores you.

[ycban]

Thank you. That is very helpful to know. I should have tested with some scrap wood I had leftover, but I got overly excited. I think I will try to buy the dark walnut they have and maybe that will give it some color. I'm looking for a medium brown, something along the lines of light walnut. But I will test first with some small pieces just to see how these pine boards respond.

[RichardA]

Good luck, remember you can lighten the walnut color by adding natural til you reach the color you're looking for. And finally, allow 4 or 5 days for the oil to dry before reapplying.  The surface will feel dry, but the oil soaked in the wood will take a little longer.  Additionally, before you apply your first coat of the color you've finally determined is what you want, With just your hand lightly go over the whole piece that your going to oil, with a "light" surface sanding with 220 or higher grit sandpaper. it'll break the seal your natural coat has formed.  Lightly.     Again, there's no guarantee because pine is difficult to get along with.

[Chet]

25 minutes ago, ycban said:

I think I will try to buy the dark walnut they have

Practice on some scraps of the same would you used.  Also you already have the natural and if you get the dark walnut you may want to try some different recipes.  Maybe start with 3 parts of natural and one part dark walnut do this in small quantities so you don't go through you supply doing experiments.  I would do three table spoons of the natural and one table spoon of the dark walnut in a paper dixie cup making sure the dixie cup doesn't have a wax coating.  Once you get a recipe you like you can mix it in a larger quantity. 

Don't use you kitchen measuring spoons... this can lead to trouble with your spouse if there is one. 

[wtnhighlander]

One more tip I've used successfully with Danish oil: flood the surface, the 'wet sand' with 600 or 800 grit to create a slurry of fine wood powder in the oil. Allow to sit for 15 minutes or so, then wipe away any puddles of oil that remain. Allow to dry as @RichardA says between coats. The result with pine feels buttery smooth after a few coats. Also understand that oiled pine darkens more with age. After a few months, that very light 'natural' may become a deep warm amber.

[Coop]

And welcome to the forum.

[Wimayo]

Lots of good advice above. And, I agree, Natural Watco will not appreciably darken the wood. However, in my opinion, the one thing that has been missed here is the conditioner. With the danish oil, the conditioner is not needed and by using it, you have kept the oil from penetrating. Had you not used the conditioner, the oil would have penetrated more completely and would have darkened the wood color more than it has. However, without some color in the oil, It still may not have been to your liking.