Do you think this is acceptable ?

Hi
Went to fit this today 18mm furlong next step, supposed to be Dark smoked oak, customer not happy, I know its a natural product etc but it looked horrendous in her hall, what do you think ?
First conversation I have had with the suppliers and their saying the "smoked Process" means they can vary, which I appreciate but it does seem pretty extreme. Looked worse when its actually laid out in the hall

 

looks like 4 different types/batch

 

That's ****ing awful? Send it back mate, I would of thought it would be more uniform if it was smoked?

 

Looks like four different colours nevermind batches!

 

Any one know anything about the " smoking process " ?

 

I quite like it

 

That light one deffo looks wrong

 

I still quite like it

 

Explain ??

 

agree with Merit... i'd expect a lot more consistency with a smoked product...! that could well be a true smoked finish BUT would assume then that customer (??) paid bargain price for it!!! get what you pay for init...!!!

 

Furlongs? Can't imagine they actually have smoked products? Could be wrong. One of them planks has definatly smoked too much, its gone all pale

 

lolz...

 

As it stands , I have paid for the whole lot ...grrrr
and they are sending a rep down to see if it an acceptable colour tolerance !!

 

So smoked should be more consistent , furlong are telling me the opposite ?

 

I think its more the fact the customers not happy as the colour variation is so much. Can have that problem on all wood jobs without decent sized sample boards.

 

Just that one of them looks too different in colour; like the one child who have who was conceived when you were working away a lot

 

When I laid it out it looked like I had jumbled up four different colours, cant say I have ever had one this extreme in variation, day and a half down the pan this week

 

you'd expect a certain amount of variation as with all oaks especially if graded C, D, then you'll get a few 'rouge' blonde / sap boards & a few 'bit too dark' or just scruffy boards which you'll generally take out & fit to the understair, W/C or other out of the way rooms, or simply just don't use them. if however this variation as per pic is evident in every pack then IMHO i don't think it looks that sweet mate... if i can find them i'll post a few pics of a smoked & oiled V4 Eiger i installed, it has a distressed finish to but ignore that point...

 

pic quality not great but you get a feel for the product....

 

Smoking is a process in which the boards are put in a sealed room which is then filled with ammonia fumes. The ammonia reacts with the tannin in the oak and causes the change in colour. Different types of oak react to lesser or greater degrees to the process and sap wood will hardly change colour at all. American oak is notoriously difficult to smoke/fume. Not sure this helps much.