Question on maing inexpensive wood look likek expensive wood?

Question

I was watching some Do It yourself show, I cant remember if it was New Yankee Workshop, Bob Villa, This Old House, Sweat Equity, etc. but they had on this guy that did finsihes and he made I beleive it was pine come out to look like oak or mahogany.

As expected, he didnt give out the exact recipee, but it was something along the lines of hitting the wood with a fast thin coat of dark stain, then hitting it again with something else, in a certain application pattern, then topped it of with some type of polyurethane. In his live demonstration, he held the origianl piece of wood that had the (mystery application) done to it next to a piece of real oak or mahogany and the two looked exactly alike. Anyone recall this episode? Anyone know what this process is called?

Any technques you can recommend?

Answer 1

staining, apply thin coats , use 2 diffrent color stains, let each coat dry, [they dont show that] sand restain sand , coat with polyurathane, sand recoat,

Answer 2

It a technique of blending (not mixing) different colors of stains.
Check on the web, if the show was on T V I'm sure there must be more detailed information from that show or even another, on what stains he used and the exact method.
Why not just take some old wood and experiment for yourself. That's how most of these ideas come about anyway. I've done similar effects myself when trying to match old finishes.