Paul Sellers have moved back to the UK. In addition to his website [0] and blog there's plenty in his YouTube channel.
And my feeling is that Europeans in general don't insist on staining everything like Americans do. Or maybe it's just us in Scandinavia that actually think the bright natural color of birch, but even pine, is quite beautiful.
The one thing I find (as a UK woodworker) when watching US or Canadian channels is (a) they all seem to have massive workshops, like size-of-a-barn massive, and (b) they have machines for everything. I could not tackle many of the projects they do because of limited space, which restricts the machines I can accommodate.
Paul Sellers definitely understands that many UK woodworkers are in their garage or garden shed and keeps that in mind for his projects, and uses predominantly hand tools. I'm not saying I don't like the North American channels, and Matthias is a true hacker as well as a woodworker, but it's a different world.
Just to add my own recommendation: Alain Vaillancourt does some excellent stuff, from his vast workshop located somewhere in the New World:
You might like Rex Kruger's channel. He has a large shop and lots of machines, but he mainly focuses on hand tools and doing things cheaply/diy when it comes to his YouTube content. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj4SLNED1DiNPHComZTCbzw
No affiliation. I just found him a couple weeks ago and have been really enjoying it.
It's a guy in South Africa with a small workshop. The main point of his videos is designing space-saving tool mounts and storage for his shop. He uses cheap tools—and lots of plywood—to make some clever stuff.
It's not a channel for seeing furniture made, but it's interesting nonetheless.
I learnt to carve spoons from a few Swedish guys so I have a lot of love for a simple linseed-oil finish :) Can't get any nice, bright, linseed-oil paint in the UK though, which is a bit of a bummer.
I ended up using stain for this current project as the room called for dark wood, but the only two real-wood options for skirting boards in the UK are pine or oak, which are both light woods, so I opted to stain pine for it.
And thank you! Someone at work mentioned his videos recently and I completely forgot the name.
+1 for Paul Sellers. He's a bunch of content on finishing too and I've just tried his combo of shellac + beeswax to finish pine and it works fantastically and is cheap.
Stain is a tool like any other. It can be used garishly and tastelessly or it can be used to complement a piece. See also: carvings, inlay, brasses, or pretty much anything else used for anything beyond holding the piece together.
It is. From a fine woodworking perspective, however, it very often runs counter to purpose when the goal is to take advantage of the natural beauty inherent in the medium.
I am super confused right now. I tried to be very careful in my wording to avoid being hyperbolic or all inclusive. Am I giving that impression at all?
Eh, I dunno. I don't take issue with your reply. I suspect some people might read "from a fine woodworking perspective" as snobbery or a no-true-Scotsman that I'm not seeing?
From my standpoint as a woodworker, everybody's money's equally green and if somebody wants a piece stained something garish, it doesn't cost me any more than if they want it in a natural color. Although, as a mentor of mine once said: "You don't have to sign everything you build".
I'll let you know if that perspective changes if I ever have so much work coming in that I have to turn jobs down :-)
And my feeling is that Europeans in general don't insist on staining everything like Americans do. Or maybe it's just us in Scandinavia that actually think the bright natural color of birch, but even pine, is quite beautiful.
[0] https://paulsellers.com/