| Sand with 220 grit MinWax Stain Conditioner - single coat with excess wiped off after about 1 minute. Let dry completely Lightly sand with 220 |  |
| Stain is a mixture of General Finishes Water Base Stain 4 Parts Walnut/ 1 Part Espresso Single Coat   |  |
| Top is going to be 3 coats of MinWax Water based Oil Modified Polyurethane. I guess this is still undecided, but we liked the look on our test piece. |  |
| Lumber came in from The Hardwood Store of N.C. today. They were not kidding, this is some really nice Alder. 22 -10 foot pieces with widths ranging from 6-8 inches. |  |
 | It fit into the minivan perfectly. Thanks to the guys at work for helping unload it all. The wood will have get acclimated to the house for a few weeks before I start working the wood. That will give me time to planer sled built. |
| Our old cabinets are maple and we wanted something different. We tried 4 or 5 different stains on both Cherry and Alder. A soft, relatively low-strength, straight-grained, even-textured wood. Works well with hand and machine tools, but sharp cutting edges need to be maintained to prevent tearing the grain. The wood is rarely wider than 6 due to the small size of the trees. A relatively small tree, reaching about 50ft in height and producing a trunk in diameter up to 15''. The tree grows in Pacific Coast of North America. Alder also does not darken over time as much as other wood species. |
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