If you use a varnish, urethane or natural without first using a stain, it will darken and redden considerably over several months until equilibrium is reached. Oil based varnishes will also initially give a slight amber tone and worsen with age. Water based varnishes are clear and will stay so with age.

If you wish to keep that bright white pine look, stain the wood first with a white pickling wiping stain. It will alter the initial look only slightly. DON'T miss an area, or it will age and stand out like a sore thumb!

DON'T use a urethane varnish over that white stain, as the amber tone will be blatantly obvious.

David, would a wood conditioner before a stain be advisable here? Pine can be so blotchy without it.

A wood conditioner is always advisable on pine. However, if a white pickling stain is used, such blotchiness is minimal. Blotchness is more noticeable on darker stains where the dark pigment gets stuck in the porous parts of the wood grain.

David, your comment about "not using urethane varnish over white stain is misleading." Waterborne acrylic or acrylic-urethane is the ONLY topcoat over white that will yellow the least, short of Conversion Varnishes or 2k Polyurethanes. There are a few W.B. acrylic-urethane that amber, such as General Finishes Enduro-Var, but they specifically tell you. Generally, acrylic-urethanes are clear.

Waterborne polyurethane, on the other hand, will amber slightly, but much less than oil. You have to look at the TDS to see what the product is composed of. Unfortunately, the can label does not tell you, and the manufacturer calls their product whatever they want.

Pine will naturally amber over time, regardless of what you apply. If you want at blonde wood, use another wood species such as birch.

For staining pine to avoid blotchiness, use a dye dispersed in denatured alcohol and apply with a sprayer. It is very easy and the feel is more like applying a toner, but it sounds like the OP is just looking for a clear, no color.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQuUfSoSWgQ

carlos.

All woods will darken and generally redden with age if not stabilized with a stain. Birch is no exception. If it is desired to keep a pine bright white looking, treat it with a white pickling stain and then use a non-amber water based urethane. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, but in general, water based products stay clear, oil based start off with some amber tone and get worse with age. Those that amber will show it initially.

One of the primary reasons for applying a stain, is not just the original coloring of the wood, but stabilizing it from turning further with age.

My wife sold furniture for many years. Customers would special order cherry wood pieces and then be surprised when it was delivered that it was not cherry colored. My wife would explain to them that within a couple months, it would take on that dark cherry look. This would happen so rapidly, that she would have to change the accessories on the cherry dressers on display almost daily, least they develop a light ring where a vase was sitting, as the rest of the piece darkened.

Pbsklos

Ugh, blanket statements will be the death of me.

Walnut lightens with age, which is why it absolutely is never used for furniture. lol.

Casey

"Walnut is never used for furniture" - since when? Blanket statements lol

"All woods will generally darken and redden with age..." Is such a blanket statement as to soothe Linus VanPelt.

Casey

OK, maybe the statement "all woods" was too broad, however, the common woods used in home and furniture construction: oak, pine, birch, cherry absolutely will darken and redden until equilibrium is reached. Staining initially gives color, but it also forestalls the natural darkening of these woods.

A few years ago, I showed one of my neighbors how to use a white stain to keep the natural look of his new pine woodwork. I warned him to be careful not to miss any areas because the stained wood does not initially look much different from the unstained white pine. Sure enough, he missed one sash on both of his new casement windows. Within a couple months, those sash turned very red and much darker. The stained sash remained natural and like new.

IMO - there's nothing wrong with raw wood. We have 'real' Scandinavian furniture, beech, cherry, Baltic birch, maple. All have clear finishes or oiled.

This stain 'thing' is so unnatural.

My wife sold scandinavian furniture for years and I have a house full of merely oiled teak furniture. My last house had red oak woodwork which was merely varnished and allowed to age. My wife bought a white pine corner hutch, which I merely varnished, knowing that within a few months the hutch would match the red oak.There is nothing wrong with letting a wood age naturally, just that one should be aware that it will happen if one does not like that look.

A couple decades ago, plain pine was quite popular in danish furniture, but it was usually stained with a white stain to keep it looking like new white pine.