Both an oil rub like Danish oil and oil-containing varnishes like Waterlox or solvent-based clear coats will yellow your wood, though the mechanisms are a little different. Those finishes with a high oil component go on with an orange to yellow tint depending if they are based on linseed or tung oil. The solvent-based clear coats may go on clear and then take a few years to yellow. If you want a bleached, Scandanavian-style wood, you'll definitely need a waterborne finish as well as some bleaching prior to the top coats. Some woods respond better to the process than others. White oak is a popular base wood for a bleached look.

We have been nothing but pleased with our Rubio coated floors. I am building a bedroom suite and seriously thinking about finishing it with Rubio when I came across this thread; and was a bit surprised by all the negative comments. I am neither a contractor nor a flooring professional, but finished the floors myself and found it was relatively simple and straightforward. Our floors have been in for over 5 years and look as good as the day they were finished. The floors are Owens Plankfloor engineered white oak (select and better rift and quarter sawn), which I highly recommend. We really liked the color of the natural white oak and did many blends of samples to try and keep the color as close to natural as we could. We finally went with ½ natural and ½ 5% white. We are doing a whole house remodel and not knowing exactly what we were going to do in the kitchen but tired of walking on concrete, we laid the rest of the house and left the kitchen floor unfinished. The kitchen was finished and subsequent flooring laid approximately a year ago (4 years after the original floor). Additionally we took out a fireplace and hearth in a living room and weaved in new flooring approximately 3 years after the original floor. In both cases the new flooring was coated with Rubio and blended perfectly. Had these floors been finished traditionally, it would have been very difficult to match finishes. The attached picture shows the transition from old to new (basically from the refrigerator back into the kitchen. We mop with Rubio Soap once a month or so and realize we may have to recoat at some point, but really like the matte finish. We don’t have children in the house but do have a small dog and 2 2-year old grandkids. <>YF

Bleaching will lighten the wood. If, it is yellow. It will make it less or eliminate it. Having white oak means that you can skip the bleaching process. Nordicseal is a good product for white washing. Since, it is also a sealer, it will block any tannins from bleeding through prevent the yellow. Also, if, you use a water base poly, the water base poly will prevent the yellowing. If, you use an oil base, then expect yellowing to occur. You can also use a stain mixture for white washing. But, you will need to apply a sealer to prevent tannins from bleeding through.

Pallman is fine. There are two things I would change: Humidity - it is at the lower end of acceptable. Even though 35% is allowed, it is still going to show some problems with splitting and checking. Please get it up to 45% - 50%. That will really, really, really help the wood look health and beautiful. This should be done SLOWLY. About 5% increase every 7 days or so. Ditch the Minwax. It is low-end DIY stuff. If Pallmant makes stains, then get them to work with Pallman stains. Get them to redo the colour patches for you to decide on your colour...again going with a coat of finish over the stain patch so that you can see the depth of colour. That's it. They are stepping up and fixing a finish that was really rough. They buffed three times (I'm assuming the buffing was between every coat) and yet they still came up with a rough finish. So they are doing it over. Very nice. You have an stand-up group of guys there. If they won't switch out the Minwax - it probably isn't a huge deal. Many refinishers like to work with Minwax because the stains have remained the same for DECADES. I'm not a fan, but oil based stains work with oil based finishes all the time. The HUMIDITY is going to be your challenge as a homeowner. If you can bump it up to 45%, you will have a much happier floor. Much, much happier floor.