When BLO on maple

[Ed Gibbons]

To pop the grain, I have always put down a generous amout of BLO after sanding. Then I will follow up with dye, shellac, and then varnish. I have read that some finishing techniques put down the BLO after the dye.

Feedback appreciated.

[Steve Schoene]

Dye is generally best on bare wood--I like to apply a fairly dilute dye, then sand the surface so it leaves dye in the porous parts of the figure, and then seal. Frankly I don't see much difference between adding a BLO layer, and going directly to an oil based varnish, though others seem to. And, the shellac is almost entirely for the color if you are using an oil based varnish and are able to give the BLO 2 days to cure before varnishing.

[todd johnson]

I dyed first then added oil afterwards on curly maple.

[glenn bradley]

+1 for dye on bare wood. Dye over oil turns out a bit "muddy" for me.

[Jim Becker]

I dye first and then oil if I'm going to oil...for the same reasons stated by "first responders". :)