Floorboards - how to sand and finish without them looking orange

[CHall]

Hi. I have some late victorian pine floorboards that I'm looking to sand, possibly stain and then finish. They are not in bad condition but there's lots of old paint splatters and some rough areas and scatches so I feel the whole floor would benefit from sanding and finishing. I've read Toby Newell's excellent website and I'd like to give it a go myself.

As a test/experiment I took a section from one of the original boards (which I had needed remove anyway) and sanded then applied one coat of shellac (Mylands Shellac Barrier Seal) and then two coats of water based polyurethane lacquer. When I sanded the board, the bare wood did look a bit yellowy (as pine does) and I feel with the finish it is a bit orangy (see photo showing the finished test section, and the floor as it is). I actually like the brown of the floorboards as they are or something a bit lighter.

So my question is, when I come to sand and finish the whole floor, how can I tone down the orange and get it to a colour that is something aproximating how the floor looks now. Should I use pale shellac instead of shellac barrier seal, or is there a dye I can add to the shellac? From Toby Newell's site he suggests perhaps a water dye with a bit of green added. I'm fully aware there is a whole art to this and I am just a DIYer without any of the experience needed to get the perfect colour. But I'm wondering if there is a method to achieve a bit more of a light/mid brown, and crucially, one that I've got a fighting chance of being able to apply without screwing it up.

I'm happy to do a few more tests before I do the whole floor.

Any help much appreciated.

 

[Toby Newell]

Hi. I have some late victorian pine floorboards that I'm looking to sand, possibly stain and then finish. They are not in bad condition but there's lots of old paint splatters and some rough areas and scatches so I feel the whole floor would benefit from sanding and finishing. I've read Toby Newell's excellent website and I'd like to give it a go myself.

As a test/experiment I took a section from one of the original boards (which I had needed remove anyway) and sanded then applied one coat of shellac (Mylands Shellac Barrier Seal) and then two coats of water based polyurethane lacquer. When I sanded the board, the bare wood did look a bit yellowy (as pine does) and I feel with the finish it is a bit orangy (see photo showing the finished test section, and the floor as it is). I actually like the brown of the floorboards as they are or something a bit lighter.

So my question is, when I come to sand and finish the whole floor, how can I tone down the orange and get it to a colour that is something aproximating how the floor looks now. Should I use pale shellac instead of shellac barrier seal, or is there a dye I can add to the shellac? From Toby Newell's site he suggests perhaps a water dye with a bit of green added. I'm fully aware there is a whole art to this and I am just a DIYer without any of the experience needed to get the perfect colour. But I'm wondering if there is a method to achieve a bit more of a light/mid brown, and crucially, one that I've got a fighting chance of being able to apply without screwing it up.

I'm happy to do a few more tests before I do the whole floor.

Any help much appreciated.

View attachment 13387

View attachment 13406

First of all your boards look wonderful with a lovely tight grain and are in fantastic condition, you are very lucky. They look like they have been waxed. Secondly, maybe read more carefully! You cannot add water stain to shellac, they are immiscible, you would need a sprit stain more often sold as LF (Light Fast) stains. That is very obviously not going to get you back to where you started from.

Which begs the question. Why are you attempting to drastically change the appearance of your boards by sanding if you like how they look before you start?

You cannot simply overcoat them with a durable lacquer because it would peel off due to the wax, so you are going to be left with a weak finish, but that is the price you will have to pay. I have clients like this very occassionally that I didn't weed out and they are a total nightmare because they are never pleased.

You have to ask yourself if you like the colour of the boards right now then why are you sanding them clean? They look in exceptionally great condition so not many splinters. The grey colour is dirt trapped in wax.

If I were you I would carefully scrape and clean the gaps between the boards, this actually makes a big difference, and of course punch all the nails to retighten the floor. Then I would very carefully scrape off any paint spots. Finally I would clean the floor with a hot soda wash, very hot water (change often) with Dri Pak (< brand) washing soda. Do two or three rows at a time, apply with a strong ribbed cotton floor cloth. This will create an opaque dark grey-brown slurry, this acts as a mild stain. Even this up along the grain with a second cloth, eg a large microfibre cloth (two buckets) and keep a wet edge, otherwise you might get streaks when it dries. What you are doing is removing 85% of the wax and dirt, but leaving 15% of it giving you a similar tone but lighter and cleaner.

Then you can apply a wax again over the top. Mylands traditional will give the highest sheen and most protection but is very hard to buff. You might be better off with Harrells wax (from W.S. Jenkins)

You should be left with a colour and look that lies between the two examples. If there was a process where you could wave a wand and you could keep the dirt and patination but make it suitable for coating I would be a very rich man.

If you like the clean look but simply want to knock back any orange then you need to add colours and pigments to your shellac, I could get an amazing rich tea biscuit type hue from those boards, but it would probably take a few months practice for you. If I said something like I would add raw sienna pigment, black and green light fast to shellac and adjust with red, yellow and blue and apply with a no.18 zorino possibly applying multiple coats adjusting as I go it would sound like meaningless gobbledy gook.

I think the floor looks very grubby as is, but if you like the colour you like the colour, beauty in the eye and all that, a soda wash will (hopefully) remove the carpet underlay pattern, some of the paint and most of the dirt and make it look cleaner. I certainly wouldn't be sanding in your case, the scratches you will just have to deal with, you can't have it all! Water staining the bare wood will leave you with artefacts like darker sapwood stripes and patches where the grain changes direction, so that's not really an option.

No one likes sanding, the better condition a surface is the less it requires sanding. If you have broken or missing boards then to colour match even reclaimed replacements, itoften requires sanding, as does removing deep scratches, bitumen etc. Sanding removes scratches, paint, bitumen, wax, oils and other contaminants and provides a suitable clean, adhesion-promoting surface for a new durable finish that is easy to maintain, clear finished or coloured. Sanding is mostly for function, not form.

The less damage and erroneous artefacts you have at the start the less need there is for sanding. The compromise is that you will never remove all of the wax by washing and so adhesion of most finishes will be compromised. (Technically you could coat with a two part nitro solvent borne polyurethane which is incredibly forgiving but this is an industrial finish, is incredibly difficult to apply and probably has the strongest solvent odour you have ever experienced) You simply have to accept the only really compatible finish you can apply to a partially cleaned wax surface, is more wax, which has very low durability and is not water washable.

Try a simple flow chart. What is THE most important characteristic for your finished floor? 1. Colour and patination 2. Cleanliness and smoothness 3. Ease of future cleaning and durabilty. If the answer is number 1 then clean and wax. If 2 or 3 then sand and compromise. If it's all 3 then you are out of luck! And if you find a way to combine all 3 then please let me know and I will make you rich.

The good news is if you don't like the washed and waxed look you can simply sand afterwards and incase I didn't repeat myself enough already, your boards are in very, very good condition, I don't see floors like that very often. Good luck and I hope you find a good compromise!

 

[Toby Newell]

If you want to go down the 'almost impossible to apply by hand and the solvent will melt your brain' route then any two part solvent PU should do, Morrells do several, Jenkins sell Sirca, an Italian coating made under licence by ISF (I use it for exterior doors) and I used to buy similar direct from the Sonneborn and Rieck factory (cash no VAT!) now Fujichem Sonneborn (they make coatings for automotive) all three vendors have excellent technical departments, but beware! The tins don't have instructions! Apart from hardener mixing ratio. These coatings are designed for offset roller coat, curtain (gravity) coat and spray coating in industrial facilities, 'open time' ie the time before the finish skins over, starts to dry and is no longer moveable ie with a brush, is around 20 to 30 seconds which means coating by brush takes extreme skill, albeit doable with practice. You simply have to coat perfectly, constantly, no ridges, no runs, no drips, no brush marks, no pools, adjusting any such defects within 10 seconds whilst maintaining a constantly moving perfect 10 wet edge to the end of the board where you can breathe again (through your respirator) Imagine playing guitar hero and hitting perfect 10's constantly for an entire hour. If you decide to be foolishly brave then choosing the mattest option will show up any coating defects the least. Other than that it's wax.

 

[Toby Newell]

If you want to have fun you could try multi modal staining. ie prestaining with a pigmented water stain then going over with a shellac stain that would act also as a barrier seal before applying a lacquer. The only issue with that would be the propensity of pine to stain in a very patchy manner and thus you are unlikely to be able to replicate the current look completely. You can ask Lacan who received advice from me over several months via DMs before staining his bathroom.

The main issue is water stains or other dyes, even ones that are partially or totally pigment based soak into the timber. This is fine with hardwoods such as oak or mahogany as the timber has an even porosity as in oak and the small discrepancies in mahogany actually enhance the look where the grain changes direction, increasing chatoyancy. Pine on the other hand is both softer and more porous and so has a tendancy to go patchy, this also happens with the sapwood and leads to darker bands at the edges of most boards. This is because these areas absorb more liquid and after that dries by evaporation you are left with more colour particles in that area. This is why I have spent decades developing tinted shellac colours as this sits more on the surface.

Essentially the floor in the photos is pine covered in a thick layer of wax that has incorporated a lot of dirt, that is the brown-grey colour, dirt.

Dirt is closer to a pigment in that it is made up of earth, dust, lint etc and so to replicate it you are best to use pigments.

Now, I cannot tell in reality what the colour of your floor is as the photos were taken under artificial light and I have no white balance information to correct it. But a good place to start would be to make a very dilute black or grey stain using a black or grey pigment. Black colours are often just very, very dark blue colours and when diluted will give a very cold cast, to counter this you should add a little brown pigment and experiment with that.

You can then seal the water stain with a tinted shellac layer or layers. You can experiment by adding a little transparent orange LF spirit stain to your shellac to warm it up, or a little blue or green and black to cool it down more. It is important to make the stains quite dilute or the wood will go dark and patchy. Remember to write everything down and measure how many spoons / drops you use as you will have to scale your colour up later if you get an effect you like. This is quite a big deal! Ideally you want to make the 'big version' as you go, you often end up adjusting, diluting etc and can easily make up two, three or four times as much colour as you really need, this can be a bit pricey.

There really is no substitute for practice, I have been doing this for 38 years and often it can take me hours to get the right colour and sometimes I fail.

You want the first pigmented coat to give the dirty / misty effect, then for the shellac to adjust the overall hue, you will never replicate the exact look. I am guessing you want something similar just maybe slightly cleaner, more even.

I have to say I have never done this exact colour, nor would I attempt it, I have done so in the past but ended up with a very dark colour, but that wood was very soft. (I still remember the job! It was in Muswell Hill yonks ago and it all went a very dark green and it was a struggle for me to rescue it, I have photos somewhere of the green effect and it looking grey, but sadly got fed up and no final finished photos) Your timber looks very nice, fine grained and (relatively for pine) quite hard, so you might have a better chance than I did. You could try a grey pigmented oil but this would probably have a very different look, but try it, you might like it.

If you experiment you might not achieve the look you were initially hoping for but may discover another look along the way which you might like equally as much, if not more. The positive news is that you appear to have very nice, slow grown virgin growth pine which whilst still pine, is less porous and easier to stain than inferior pines, so whatever you do there is a good chance it will look nice.

One final technical tip, if you are going to attempt the improbable then absolutely meticulous preparation is essential, sand to P80, preferably by random orbital hand machine, water wash then finish sand back the raised grain with P120 or even P150. P150 will start to 'close the grain' which effectively makes the surface slightly less porous which means it will absorb less colour and go less patchy. (Normally for a clear finish P80 or P100 is sufficient on pine if you finish with hand machine)

 

[CHall]

Thanks so much Toby for your detailed reply. Lots of great really useful info to think about.

I hadn't thought of washing instead of sanding. There are a couple of reasons why I'm leaning towards sanding (which I probably should have mentioned). One is that I have had to replace some boards where there used to be a hearth (now piano). I have got a pretty good match on most of the boards using reclaimed wood but three of them stick out (could replace again if needs be), hence the need to sand. There's also bitumen(?) at the edge nearby. Also this room is the dining room and there is a knock through into the living room and I'm trying to get the boards to look similar throughout. The ones in the living room have bitumen around the edge and some repair work to do. I also need to put a board in where the old wall was. See pictures.

I'm not trying to get an exact match with the dirty grey/brown. I'm looking to just cool down the orange colour if I sand and finish. But I realise it's not as simple as that! I'd be up for experimenting with some stain/tints. The water stain sounds difficult to apply without going patchy, although I could practice. I'm wondering - is it possible to sand and then go straight to applying shellac but with spirit dyes added to cool down the colour, as I'm not looking to get that exact brown? Or is using the water stain first needed to cool things down properly?

 

[Toby Newell]

The short answer is... sand bitumen P24, sand waxed part P40 then P60 w 150mm w edge sander. Sand whole floor P80 with random orbital / dual action random orbital / screeder, water wash, leave overnight. Final sand with random orbital P120 one board at a time using high powered light to check for scratches. Vacuum constantly, use dust extraction and vacuum twice before coating and inbetween coats, including cleaning all horizontal surfaces, yourself and any adjacent areas. Experiment w shellac colour tint. You can make colour w spirit (= lightfast) stains and / or pigments. You will need (at least) 1x5l Mylands Shellac Floor Barrier Seal, 1x2.5l meths, 1x1l Mylands Light Fast Stain Light oak, 1x250ml Mylands Light Fast Stain Black, 1x250ml Mylands Light Fast Stain Green, 1x Mixol Universal Stainer Kamel (Camel) Oxide 20ml, 1x Mixol Universal Stainer Schwarz (Black) 20ml, 1x Mixol Universal Stainer Umbra (Raw Umber) 1 or 2x 5l Junckers Strong, Loba Viva or Bona Mega. You will also need several 2.5l plastic paint kettles, plastic sandwhich bags, 1x A.S. Handover no. 14 Mixed Hair Polishing Mop (£37) or 1x A.S. Handover Squirrel Hair Polishing Mop (£134) (< one of the two brushes are 100% essential, you cannot shellac colour using a normal brush, the mixed hair will be less forgiving and ideally requires 'working in' whereas the squirrel will be perfect out the gate and potentially leave less brush marks) For the water based lacquer you will need 1 (or more incase you don't clean properly) Hamilton For The Trade Synthetic Angled Paintbrush 2in and / or Hamilton Prestige Pure Synthetic Laying Off Brush 4in / Purdy Monarch Elite 3in. And (if you are rollering) 1x ( or more) Bona Supercoat Roller for Waterbased Lacquers, 1x 250mm / 10in Roller Spindle Frame, 1x Telescopic Roller Pole. (I use Rota screw in but you can use push fit, secure both with tape over top to prevent coming loose, most rollers are 9in, you want 10in roller and 10in spindle head, not caged head, you can use any pole, the lighter the better) 1x 15l paint scuttle, 1x pack 15l Plastic Paint Scuttle Liners, 1x pack 5l Plastic Kettle Liners, notebook, pencil, measuring spoons / small weight scale, small syringes / small plastic pipettes, cloths, bin bags, rubble sacks, vacuum bags, masking tape, gaffa tape, fine Sharpie, polishers apron. Gloves and organic fume respirator (3M A2P3) mist bottle, microfibre mop = optional.

If using pigments (Universal tinters) dilute shellac with up to 20% meths first coat. If using spirit stains (up to 20%) then this acts as meths (LF = 99% meths) so adjust accordingly. Start sample by adding light oak LF and / or Camel pigment tinter to half a pint (250ml) of shellac, dilute as required and apply in 30cm test sections, this should be richer. If too light add a few drops of black, one at a time. If too warm add a few drops of green LF and / or Raw Umber (Umbra) tinter to cool down. Write down volumes / weights / ratios = amounts in sample so you can scale up to 5l. Retest and adjust again after scaling up.

Practice coating whole board (= exponentially harder than 30cm section) to refine technique. Very briefly. Constantly mix colour esp. if using pigments otherwise = streaking. Constantly watch for drips, physically sticking cardboard underneath paint kettle can help, remove drips immediately, wipe with hand to apron (if bare hands) or use lint free cloth. Stir brush in shellac. Knock out excess on inside wall before adjusting on edge = less drips over side. Use brush wetter than normal, full and just stop excessing dripping. More = more. Open time for shellac on bare pine =~ 10 to 15 seconds = apply generous amount to single board at a time, coat ~ 1m / 3ft per brush fill keeping wet edge. Try and roughly apply to area in ~ 5 secs, then quickly even up with gentle, long, straight passes, with the grain within another 5 - 10 secs, refill brush (swirl, knock out, gently rub on edge) If you do not merge leading edge of colour with fresh colour within 10 to 15 secs and even up then you will get overlap (= darker colour patch) or removal ('pulling' = lighter colour patch. Failure to even up within 10 to 15 secs = brush marks. Brush put drips in the colour within this time or you will get dark or light spot. When you see hairs, dust / filler etc remove immediately, and put (stick) in apron pocket. Do not delay evening up or applying new colour, it's better to leave esp hairs until dry when they can be easily picked off w fingernail or v light rub w v fine sanding sponge.

Is best to leave 4 to 8hrs if applying 2nd shellac coat. If applying first lacquer coat on shellac then leave 10 to 12 hrs pref. overnight. Do not sand shellac coat or v, v lightly denib hairs / dust w v fine sanding sponge, slight roughness = better adhesion to lacquer layer. Apply 1 - 2x shellac coats + 3x water based lacquer coats. I normally do 1 - 2x shellac + 2x lacquer, but I probably coat much heavier than you. I do first lacquer coat by brush then final coat via brush (v small areas) or more normally roller. I flood on final coat at max 7-8m²/litre. Apply water based lacquer Very generously to single board and even up with light strokes ('laying off') along the grain. When using the roller, apply the maximum you can then even up with light, straight passes, preferably extend the pole and go from one wall to the other without stopping, I normally brush 2 or 3 rows at a time (you do one) and roller 3 or 4 rows at a time (you do three) If applying final coat within 48hrs of previous and little dust and pimples then no need to sand (adhesion = chemical bond) if rough or more than 48hrs then carefully denib w either P240 or P320 either with fine random orbital sander w soft interface pad or safer still, by hand. To minimise dust, after vacuuming you can spray clean, fresh water from mister bottle from head height = 'dampening down' = removes dust from air and dampens floor, then you can do final 'sweep' with a clean (flat) microfibre mop (I use the Bona one) and let dry before final coat. Vacuum whole floor, then remove head and vacuum all edges and corners (plaster / dust / paint flakes can come from under and behind skirting / architraves / jambs) then vacuum again before misting and wiping w microfibre mop.

This is the briefest summary possible. It took me several years to become semi proficient at this on furniture and architectural work, then another fifteen or twenty years to develop this on floors. I have never seen anyone else do this technique. Don't worry if you muck up, I have spent thousands of hours researching and practicing this and I still often find it hard. I also often have a few hairs and drips in the final finish and bits of dust and very occasionally brush marks in places, the knack is to not get any overlaps or major brush marks, doing so will give an amazing look and colour.

Luckily for you you appear to have very rare slow grown, fine grained, yellow / baltic pine from virgin growth forest, this is harder and less porous than normal. Additionally it seems to have been covered for most of it's life and is quite pale and less orange than normal. For these reasons you can use the lightest tint possible which should make coating much easier. Two light coats = better than one heavy coat, because, any streaks / patches / overlaps will be weaker and spread out over two coats in different areas making the colour more even.

You may find your new boards do not match, or that the area underneath the bitumen is a lighter colour (bitumen = opaque = blocks UV = timber oxidises less = lighter colour) You can either selectively colour disparate boards first, eg by making warmer and darker to match the rest etc, then colour the whole floor, or colour the whole floor, then selectively apply more colour to the disparate parts. I do both.

I have omitted colour science for brevity. Basically any colour will make the wood darker. It's best to coat in natural light or failing that with the lights that will eventually be used in the room. Any work light should either be a high powered halogen (CRI = 99) or v high quality daylight LED (cooler white, CRI > 90) If you are repainting afterwards remember wall colour will affect floor colour eg a deep blue wall will absorb most orange light (light bounces and 'diffuses' multiple times before it enters your eyes) and thus floor will look cooler. If you then repaint with red paint, the floor will appear more orange. Same with when changing from cool white / daylight LED or halogen to lower power (lower colour temp) incandescent / warm white LED / CFL. Never coat under CFL unless you intend to keep and mostly view at night, CFL has terrible CRI.

To summarise the summary... 1. Sand very, very smooth, P120 - P150. 2. Vacuum and clean religiously, including yourself and clothes / socks. 3. Make colour as light as possible, v small change can have dramatic effect over large area. 4. Apply two lighter coats vs one heavier one if needed. 5. Remain calm, work confidently and 'smartly ' ie, less haste, more speed, when colouring. 6. Forget about hairs / other inclusions when colouring, stick to the plan and remove when dry. 7. Don't overbrush, you make a tiny mistake and your edge is drying, move on, it's about the bigger picture. 8. Don't colour when very hot and never in direct sunlight, if sunlight falls on floor, close curtain / blind / block off. Use newspaper or white sheet that let's diffuse light through. If floor is hot, let cool before colouring or lacquering.

Right. I am now going to shoot myself and throw myself out of my own magic circle.

 

[Toby Newell]

^^^ That's the short but very full answer. In my defence it did take me 38 years to work it out.

 

[Toby Newell]

Now you know why no one else does this

If your brain explodes you could do what all the 'floor sanding experts' do ie wipe on some pigmented Osmo Polyox and call it a day. Perfectly reasonable avenue to take.

 

[Toby Newell]

FYI I (currently) use Mylands Shellac Floor Barrier seal, Mylands, Jenkins and Morrells LF stains, Mixol Universal stainers, Lagler, Festool, 3M, Sia and Sait abrasives, Bona rollers, Rota handles, Hamilton synthetic lacquer brushes, a no 18 or 16 mixed hair zorino mop (and occasionally my precious no 12 squirrel) I most often use Junckers Strong lacquer or Bona Classic Prime UX + Bona Traffic HD for commercial and ultimate domestic durability. Bona come out with a new lacquer every week, not tried their latest Bona Mega Evo, but eager to do so. It's supposed to be good.

Equipment wise I use a Lagler Hummel belt sander if rough, or Bona Flexisand w Quattro head / Lagler Flip 150mm industrial edge sander, Festool Rotex RO150, Rotex RO90 and ETSEC150/3. I use Festool CTL26, CTL36, CTL Midi 2, CT15 dust extractors with ALL the hoses and accessories. I do corners with Linbide / Stanley 50mm tungsten carbide scrapers / Bahco 625 tungsten carbide and finish by hand. If you don't have a Festool RO90 then best to do all corners by hand as all other detail / delta sanders are pretty useless and leave aggressive marks. I use 3M Peltor X5 ear defenders.

If you cannot hire a Hummel then look for the Bona Belt sander, Cobra or Frank Cobra belt sanding machines. You want endless belt, 200 or 250mm. You do NOT want the Hiretech HT8 drum sander hireshop special without the clutch unless you like divots and dark lines all over your floor. You can omitt the belt sander and do all with a screeder or edge sander / dual action sander.

Remember, hire shops use the cheapest, worst abrasives at a 200 - 600% mark up (slightly more on the finer discs), they make no money on the machine hire. (Often around £9 for a cheap red Alox £4 belt and around £3 for a cheap 50p silicon carbide paper disc) Abrasive cost will be a lot more than the hire cost. If you want to be a dick, (like me when I first started) then buy your own higher quality abrasives online and sell what you have left over online or keep for future use. Just remember to smile very sympathetically like Rik Mayal and say 'that's right' when the bloke who comes to collect the machine checks the abrasives used and says 'nought, nought, nought... nought, nought, nought. I would feel a little bad if they didn't give you the worst, cheapest stuff. As far as I know there is no law forcing you to pay for their overpriced abrasives. If you use over 100 discs or 150 discs I wouldn't be surprised. They are going to load up with wax and bitumen quite quickly unless you are very lucky.

 

[CHall]

Wow, thanks Toby for taking the time to explain all this - going above and beyond! It’s exactly the info I was looking for and will hopefully help others on here too. I appreciate being able to hear from someone who obviously cares so much about their craft.

I’ll have a think about what I will do but I’m tempted to try a few tests to see what I can achieve.

 

[Toby Newell]

Wow, thanks Toby for taking the time to explain all this - going above and beyond! It’s exactly the info I was looking for and will hopefully help others on here too. I appreciate being able to hear from someone who obviously cares so much about their craft.

I’ll have a think about what I will do but I’m tempted to try a few tests to see what I can achieve.

Your thread title is my most often asked customer question which beats 'do we need to do anything about this woodworm?' I expect this might become one of the most viewed wood related threads over time.

 

[Toby Newell]

Wow, thanks Toby for taking the time to explain all this - going above and beyond! It’s exactly the info I was looking for and will hopefully help others on here too. I appreciate being able to hear from someone who obviously cares so much about their craft.

I’ll have a think about what I will do but I’m tempted to try a few tests to see what I can achieve.

KISS. Keep it simple stupid... Sand some boards really nicely to P120, go to your local DIY shop and buy a bunch of stains and experiment. You like what you like, maybe you can find an easy solution. Honestly, your boards aren't very orange, in fact they are some of the least orange boards I have ever seen for their age. You only need a very, very dilute stain. Any light brown stain that is slightly cool should do the trick. The easiest method would be a very dilute nitro stain (ask Lacan) that you wipe on, let dry and overcoat directly with water based lacquer. No need for fancy brushes and tricky techniques.

It's much better to have a clean, even looking floor without artefacts rather than the perfect colour, with artefacts.