My Sustainable Longboard: 9. Staining The Board

When deciding on a stain for my board, I took into consideration the design I would later apply and the final look I wanted. So I opted to go with a stain that highlighted the natural grain of the wood. I could have gone out and bought a professional wood stain but came across this great website on natural stains (http://themoderndiylife.blogspot.ca/2012/10/diy-dark-wood-stain.html). I opted to rummage through the communal kitchen in residence and see what I could find. It turned out that I had some leftover vanilla and a friend of mine had a full mason jar of preserved shredded beets. Voila, my natural stains! I started by tapping out some stripes, which worked better in theory than in practice. The masking tape ended up soaking up the beet juice leaving the entire board a solid red colour. I then decided to try the vanilla, and to my surprise it actually lifted some of the beet juice, which I was able to wipe away and create a two-tome effect. It may not have been the most precise of stain jobs but I really liked the antique red colour that was left over.