Two tone project finish

[chris dub]

I am going to be making a coffee table. For the top I want to use a two tone look. I want to go with a darker stained wood for the frame, like an espresso stain or something like that. And an interior panel that will be mahogany with a clear coat to feature the wood more.

When doing two different finishes on a piece do you do the finish while taping off the glue joints and then assemble or do you tape of the pieces and finish in sections once assembled? This will be my most ambitious project to date. I’m usually not the most patient person when it comes to finishing, so this will be a test.

I just bought a small turbine spray sytem. but it hasn't arrived yet. Needless to say I haven't done spray finsines with anything other than canned shellac and poly.

btw I just picked up some General Finshes stains. Way less fragrant than the minwax stuff and much richer color quality. So much to learn, so little time...

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Todd Burch]

You can make the panel and completely finish it first. Before assembling the frame, put the stain on the inside edges of the rails and stiles.

After assembly, tape off the panel completely and finish and top coat the rest of the project.

Depending on the type of panel-to-frame joinery you are using, you might be able to insert a piece of copier paper between the panel tenon and the frame groove for even extra protection (whereas tape will only get "close", the paper causes an overlap)

[Prashun Patel]

You can do it either way. From my modest experience, I find it MUCH easier to mask off the glue joints and prefinish, this includes a wash coat of the topcoat also to seal the wood. You can always scrape, sand, or chisel off any finish that finds its way under the tape, prior to glueup.

This has the beneficial effect of making glue squeeze-out extremely easy to clean up, since it's not able to penetrate the finished sections.

I will, say, though, that this means your glue up has to be RIGHT ON, it's hard with an edgebanded panel... In this case, your absolute best chance for no sweat success is to use naturally differently colored woods and to keep them natural.

[Tony Bilello]

..... For the top I want to use a two tone look. I want to go with a darker stained wood for the frame and an interior panel that will be mahogany with a clear coat to feature the wood more.........This will be my most ambitious project to date............ So much to learn, so little time...

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Call me old fashioned, but I would just use woods with the natural colors I want, like walnut for the frame and mahogany for the panels. It may or may not cost more in $$$ if you dont need to buy stains. It certainly would be a heck of a lot easier.

[chris dub]

I usually prefer natural woods as well, but my wife likes the darker redish anitique color. So as a comprimaise I was looking to do the base and top frame in her color and feature a natural figured wood in the panel.

[Tony Bilello]

Black looks good with red mahogany or padouk.
Stain the wood black and spray black lacquer on top. The grain pores will be slightly evident which gives it a nice touch....Just a thought.