Use Ciranova Wood Look plus. Here is a kitchen project that was recently done. Three coats of Wood Look for the raw wood look. It is zero gloss, no shine. Product is easier to apply compared to Bona's Nordicseal system.

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Was the hardener used with this? I have decided to go white oak..

No Hardener was used.

@G & S I read on another thread you will be using Woodlook plus on your own floors . Does the hardener provide better protection or change the color? My white oak 5” character floors being installed next week.. Pretty sure he’s never used ciranova.. but sounds like this is one of the easiest products to apply.. do you have any knowledge on its durability let’s say Versus Bona natural seal and Bona Hd traffic matte

What I have been told from a local Ciranova sales rep. The hardener improves the performance of Wood Look by 10%-15% or so, which isn't much considering the cost of the hardener. It is sold seperately.

I used Wood Look without the hardener. It has held up fine. Applied it on floors, trims along with a cabinet wood surrounds. Holding up well with cooking and cleaning. Applied the recommended 3 coats, no sealer. Verdict is still out on it's durability based on my own use. So far it's doing well with dirt, rain and snow. You can always top it off with Fortico 2C or any other 2 part water base poly.

Thank you!

@Sulsa did you decide on a finish? Pics if so?

@sulsa and @lv2plyglfgal Here are pictures of what I meant...Unfortunately, I have no samples of just the fortico on raw wood...it probably isn't as neutral as the Bona Natrual, for it might pull tannins, but it sure is neutral on their oils. I have trouble finding where the cut off is.

We used glitz infinity on our white oak floors 7 years ago. Still love the natural look.

@K Brown did you try any of the Ciranova reactive stains? They look cool but I don’t think I really want a hard wax oil floor..

@lv2plyglfgal Yes, I tried the reactive Smoke and the reactive Baro. I might go with the Baro on cabinets, but it's a bit difficult to control depending on the tannins in the wood. It went on much darker than sample--though it can be watered down before applying, I liked the 4-to-1, water-to-stain ratio best. The problem is you cannot put just any-old water based poly on top of a reactive, for the water will reactivate process. And it needs to be sealed or anything that drops on it will react. We decided to go with their Unico oil because it gave a very similar look to the reactive smoke with less effort and more control in one step. I mention the hardwax oil only in that you can put Fortico WB Poly on top of the Water Lock/wood look, Titan, the waxes, the oils, without it changing the tone and it will adhere. You can put the Titan on top of the reactives...but I'm not sure if Fortico can go directly on the reactives or if each needs a barrier first.. @G & S Floor Service will know. Or Ciranova's website has real time chatroom answers...

@K Brown I purchased a couple samples but will be returning them for the above reasons you stated! We are going to give Wood Look a try on samples ,but my finisher is Bona trained so I’m leaning that route.. I know you are looking for natural but did you try Nordic seal or white stain? You’ve been helpful, than you.

You need to spray the first coat of water base poly over reactive stain to prevent moving the color around. It can be tricky to apply with a roller or t-bar. It's easier to lock in the color with Unico. Usually natural white is used to keep cool tone. But any of their colors can be used.

@K Brown @G & S Floor Service @lv2plyglfgal @Kathy Harrington @User after trying a number of different products on floor samples, we have decided to use the Pallman Magic 2K hardened oil in Natural. It brings out the beautiful color and grain without yellowing the white boards or bleeding the tannins, and is matte with just a hint of shine. I will post pictures when the floor is done in a few weeks.

@sulsa...I tried several Pallman colors, too in all my samples. The richness and simplicity of Pallman's were both fabulous. I loved both the natural and the white, but both did pull tannins...(especially the longer the product sat on the wood.) The natural was gorgeous, but too dark for what we want on floors. We loved the white for the floors, and thought we were going that route, but when I tested a much larger sample, it came out pinkish on some boards. (The white Ciranova did not do that for some reason on same sample.)

However, I thought I would use Pallman's natural on my white oak cabinets, because the picture below is exactly the color I wanted on cabinets...but when I tested it on the raw cabinets, it totally did a different reaction...a much lighter effect, looked more like oil urethane, with a bit of an orange effect. I think the cabinets were more finely sanded so it didn't absorb as much? Who knows, but make sure you do a large enough sample on your floors and wait a few days...the bottom picture is the Natural, the top is White, and the sliver to the right is unstained/raw. But even if it turns out like this picture, they will be lovely..looking forward to pictures.

@lv2plyglfgal No...I have not tried those products..just the Bona Naturalle. My goal wasn't to get totally unchanged raw look, but to find a product that gave a slightly fumed look like my inspo picture below, that could also be protected by poly if necessary, and find a protective coating that did not alter the colors. The Pallman's white came close, as you can see from picture above, but it looked too pink on larger sample. Apparently, certain character grades of white oak can include a small percentage of red planks. I did like the sample I have of a board with a bit of reactive stain and poly, but it did have a tint of yellow from the Bona. I started this process months ago and totally went down the rabbit hole trying to figure out how to achieve this look below without spending a zillion dollars, Lol. We even literally fumed some planks ourselves.

Rubio's Monocoat smoke was nearly perfect in appearance, but it just has too many reported issues and no poly coatings that the company "recognizes" as adhering. The Ciranova Unico did the same thing with better protection options,etc.. I'm also testing options for my cabinets, stains, waxes, etc.. There is a woman who wants what you want...here is a link to her blog keeping white oak(if that is allowed here.) When you start testing, I'd love to see your results; we can narrow things down without each buying everything..LOL...my DH would rather me spend 100s now to help decide rather than thousands later if I hate what we did. But the biggest issue I have had is replicating results on larger samples...(Oh, and PS, apparently the Fortico is much easier to apply that Bona. You do not need a Phd in flooring...)

@K Brown wow I’m impressed with all your research! Thanks for the info.. I’ve had sample boards done to narrow down some things but as you say I want to see it in a bigger area.. with the poly on top.. I’m most likely going with Bona white stain or Bona natural seal.. I didn’t like the milky look of Nordic..I’ve had poly floors for 20 years and I don’t think I could go to anything with more maintenance.. even tho I love the look.. I’ll post some pics when the flooring goes in a week or two..

Keen B, I know this is an old threat, but I was wondering if you could share what Un1co color(s) you chose to use on the white oak flooring to achieve that look, and what you put on top, and how it's all held up!

@amanda_shackelton Actually, I got very lucky and ended up using a totally different product (much more affordable than Fortico, too) and I love my white oak floors. After trying so many things that promised to keep the wood as natural as possible, but instead actually either made it orange or yellow or darker, I discovered Loba. We applied Loba 2K Invisible protect (which absolutely preserves the color you want of the raw oak floors) and then we put two coats of 2K Supra AT Satin on top so it would have a bit of shine. (Some say you don't need three coats, but we have big dogs.) The Invisible is flat as flat can be, which we did not want, but it must be applied first to preserve that wonderful white oak color. The application, IMHO was much easier and forgiving than all the other products we tried. (TBH, all of the first coats of "invisibles" or "Naturals" are tricky in terms of making sure you don't overlap too much, or miss spots, which will leave vague color streaks in tone of wood. But Loba's dry time and application sets up so, so well. We were able to do it ourselves (but mind you, my husband is in commercial construction so though he is not a flooring expert, this wasn't his first attempt at floor finishing.) LOBA and a few professionals have good online videos showing you how to prep floors and apply product. If you need more advice, let me know, but any professional trained in some of the other high end WB poly should be able to apply this (AGAIN, the first coat is the trickiest). Our biggest obstacle was that this product isn't sold just anywhere, but if you can get it, I would whole-heartedly recommend it.

The 2K part of it makes it super strong and so far, the sand we track in and our two big dogs have not made any marks in the floor.

Color depends on lighting...

White oak stairs above with the same applications, And a link to a picture I posted here last year, similar discussion

Sheens on white oak