I will be replacing all my interior baseboards and door trim with hardwood moldings that I will mill.

I have a Oak Hard wood floor going in with Gunstock coloring.

I would like to color the hardwood a uniform brown.

I know Ash and Oak colors and works well.

What about popular, maple and alder?

They will be dyed a uniform color then sealed with a clear finish.

 

My opinion here- I believe poplar would be best finished with paint. Maple is difficult to get a consistent color. I've never worked with alder.

9 minutes ago, lew said:

My opinion here- I believe poplar would be best finished with paint. Maple is difficult to get a consistent color. I've never worked with alder.

same w/ alder...

stick w/ oak...

 

Alder is fairly soft but it will look like cherry when finished with BLO and varnish.   Popular has green streaks in it also on the soft side.  I would prefer a hardwood (hard as in strength ) for moldings that could be abused.  Oak ,Ash etc.  But if you want it to match Oak will be best.  Roly

If you have Oak for the floor, then I would go with Oak for the moldings. IMHO

Thanks all ash is equally hard as oak and is much less expensive.  

If the fall cost of oak drops to be competitive with ash I will go with oak.

I have never had a problem finishing Oak or Ash and you are correct poplar when I have used it before was painted.

I have dyed poplar before quite successfully.  However I did not have severe streaking to overcome.

Thanks all.

 

Maple, poplar and alder can all be prone to blotching when stained.  And if you are trying to get matching color with the floor, that really complicates the problem when you are using two dissimilar species especially oak (open pored) and these (diffuse porous).  While you might be able to get them to the same color, you will not be able to make any of these look similar to oak.

While ash and oak look similar in the raw, I've used a lot of both and they often take the same stain quite differently.   A good example is Minwax Golden Oak that turns out light brown on red oak and yellow on ash.

 

Before milling up a bunch of moldings, run some samples on scraps of your intended wood(s), stain, and finish and see how you like it.  Better to start out in the right direction than to have a house full of moldings that you can't get to look good.

 

 

Michael, I see you're in Laporte.  Where do you buy your hardwood?  Russiaville?

Where do I buy Oak.  Two sources my employer just brought down two large oaks and I am having them milled into QS rough lumber.  Beyond that the nearest hardwood lumber mill is West of South Bend and East of Fort Wayne.  It wold be quite a drive but worth it.  To all the others when I mentioned dye you all thought of stain.  I dye Maple, Oak, Ash, Alder .... to the exact same color without any problem.  But if I want to highlight the grain Ash and Oak out shine the others.  Thanks again.