How to Refinish Knotty Pine

Time and wear can really take away the beauty from knotty pine. Knotty pine is a very coarse wood that has a nice "country cabin" feel to it. After much wear and tear, knotty pine will easily become dull and old in appearance. Refinishing knotty pine is fairly straightforward and requires almost the same steps as refinishing most wood. Knotty pine wood requires a higher-grit sandpaper as it is a coarse wood and has many coarse limb knots.

100 grit sandpaper
50 grit sandpaper
Orbital hand sander
Wood varnish
Paintbrush
Rag

Instructions

- 1
  Clamp the 100 grit sandpaper into the orbital sander.
- 2
  Turn on the sander and sand the complete knotty pine surface. Focus on the coarse limb knots as they really soak up varnish. You want to re-open those wood pores to accept the coats of varnish to come.
- 3
  Take a piece of sandpaper and fold it in half. Use this piece to get every corner and nook sanded smooth.
- 4
  Moisten the rag. Wipe the complete piece of knotty pine with it. This will remove any sanding dust.
- 5
  Make sure your work area is well ventilated. Paint a thin coat of varnish over the entire piece. Let it dry for 24 hours. Sand it lightly with the 50 grit sandpaper. This will remove any raised wood dust in the dry varnish.
- 6
  Paint a second, thin coat of varnish over the entire piece. Let it dry for a minimum of 24 hours before returning the knotty pine to service.

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