Finishing hard maple - help!

[Tom Hoffman]

I have built a craftsman style bed head/foot board out of light colored hard maple. At this point it contains one coat of Watco Danish oil clear finish. My plan is to then put on a General Finishes satin "High Performance Poly" water-based top coat. However, when I put on this first coat of oil, the differences in the natural wood color between the legs and adjacent pieces became magnified 10X - the 12/4 legs are darker. I'm trying to figure out the best way to blend all this together. My desire is to keep it blonde(ish) and not too dark. I'm thinking about a pigmented oil on only the lighter pieces to blend it with the legs, or, perhaps a gel stain on the light pieces for a short period of time, then wipe off. Any suggestions? ( I tried to upload pics, but the computer wouldn't let me).

[Mike Vermeil]

Tom,

Be very careful when applying color to maple if you don't want to darken the pores of the wood. The pores tend to absorb a lot of color in comparison to the rest of the wood, leaving them very apparent. Ditto with the end grain. I'm struggling at the moment getting a piece of maple dark enough to match some exisiting cabinetry w/o highlighting the pores & end grain. The existing cabinetry was spray-finished, which allows a much more even application of color than with the usual wipe-on method. I wish I could give more advice, but like I said, I'm struggling!

Mike

[joseph j shields]

I'm no expert on finishing... but here are couple of things I do to even out the color of cherry... should work for maple:confused::confused::confused::confused:

#1. I sometimes use shellac (tinted) to even out the colors

#2. I've tinted the poly finish (I've only done this once, but it worked nicely)

The advantage with both of these approaches is that you don't have to worry about blotches or the the end grains getting too dark (like with stains)

Hope this helps!


MIKE.... You may want to try using dyes.... they don't darken the end grains. Also, if you want to stay with the stain, try sanding to only 150 grit on maple..... the courser grit allows more of the pigments to stick to the wood and will produce a darker color. (I've switched 100% to dyes... I like the results and don't have the problems associated with stains)

-jj

-jj

[Michael Cody]

I am no finishing expert either. I don't play one on TV and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last nite either. ;)


Give a shot with some mineral spirits or naphtha and wipe down the legs, see if they lighten up... or you could lightly sand them. This will remove some of the oil tint. I don't hold a lot of hope for that approach as you used a penetrating oil and if it's cured, it won't lighten up that much. You could also sand more heavily to clean up the oil coating.

As to how to go in the future, for maple to match colors I would do a coat or 2 of dewaxed blonde or ultra blonde shellac, 1.5# cut and then use a glaze or perhaps you could try a GEL stain.. the Shellac will help keep the pores from highlighting and soaking up stain... that is how I would approach it. The big thing here is you said you want to keep it very blonde so you are quite limited in what level of stain, dye, or anything else you can use.

[Alan Turner]

If you want to hold a wood light, even though it might tend to darken with a finish, you could use BLO, to which you have added just a bit of oil based white paint. This "white" oil tends to freeze the wood with a light color, and it darkens farless over time. I have used this on hard maple, white ash, and white oak. Think Danish Modern, -- 1950's.

[Tom Hoffman]

Alan: Does that mean that I would apply the BLO/white paint to the darker legs? Remember, I (stupidly??) put a penetrating oil on as a first coat.

Tom Hoffman

[Jerry Olexa]

My understanding is that Dyes works best on Maple. The conventional stains are not effective on maple as on other woods. HTH

[Tom Hoffman]

Thanks for the suggestions. You know, I've found wood finishing to be the hardest challenge in woodworking, probably harder than teaching myself hand cut dovetails. One never stops learning with this hobby.

I've been doing some experimenting this morning and I think I have the problem licked. I had a waterbased "Golden Oak" poly on the shelf I thought I'd try using on the lighter wood. At first I put that on top of the Danish oil, but still got the blotchiness. So, I tried putting on a General Finishes waterbased clear poly over the Danish oil, waited for that to dry, then went back to the waterbased "Golden Oak" and it went on even with no blotchiness! These tests were done on portions of the piece that won't be visible when the bed is ultimately assembed, but the largest test area was about a 6" x 6" area.

I'm wondering if anyone sees a flaw in this approach before I do the entire piece? I'm just not sure about mixing oil/poly/stained poly. This finishing business is oh so confusing.