So, I found myself stuck deciding between ‘brown’ and ‘santos’ the other day. Not people, mind you, but wood stains. I was fixing up this old wooden crate I found, wanted to give it a new lease on life, you know?
I went down to the hardware store. Grabbed a small tin of a generic ‘dark brown’ stain and another one labeled ‘santos rosewood’. The names sound fancy, but honestly, on the shelf, they looked kinda similar. The ‘santos’ one cost a bit more, figured it might be better quality, maybe richer color.
Putting them to the test
Got back home, found a piece of scrap wood that looked like the crate’s wood. Soft pine, nothing special. First, I cracked open the ‘brown’.
- Application: Went on smooth enough with a rag. Standard stuff.
- Color: Pretty much what you’d expect. A solid, dark brown. A bit flat maybe?
- Smell: Strong fumes, had to open the garage door wider.
- Drying: Took its sweet time drying, felt tacky for ages.
Cleaned my rag, then tried the ‘santos rosewood’.
- Application: This one felt thinner, soaked in really fast. Almost too fast, had to be quick to avoid blotches.
- Color: Okay, here’s the weird part. It wasn’t really rosewood-ish. It was brown, yes, but with this odd reddish tint that came out as it dried. Not bad, just… unexpected.
- Smell: Less harsh than the plain brown, which was a plus.
- Drying: Dried much faster. Could handle it sooner.
The Choice
So I stood there looking at my test piece. The ‘brown’ was predictable, safe. The ‘santos’ was faster drying, less smelly, but had that reddish hue I wasn’t sure I wanted for the rustic crate look. It looked a bit too ‘finished’, if that makes sense.
In the end, I actually went with the plain ‘brown’. Yeah, the cheaper, smellier, slower-drying one. Why? Because it just looked more like what I pictured for an old crate. The ‘santos’ felt like it was trying too hard, trying to make the cheap pine look like fancy rosewood, and it wasn’t fooling anyone.
It kinda reminded me of this job interview I had years ago. Two candidates, one solid but quiet, the other flashy but maybe overselling. They went with the flashy one. Heard later it didn’t work out well. Sometimes, simple and straightforward is just better, even if it takes a bit longer or smells a bit worse initially. Just gotta trust your gut feeling on what fits the situation, not just the fancy label or the slightly better specs on paper.
