Finishing Mahogany and Maple drawers

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I am approaching the point where I need to decide what to do with the drawers for a large desk made with African Mahogany. For the desk proper, I used Waterlox and it looks very nice (my first time using mahogany). Note that this is for myself, so I have no need to keep someone else happy with how the drawers look.

Drawer fronts will be Mahogany and I will finish those with Waterlox. I have no intention of finishing my drawers with Waterlox.

The drawer carcases are primary hard maple with little figure of interest (boring). For the bottoms, I am using what I have on hand, which means 1/2" highly figured mahogany plywood.

I thought that this would be a good place for me to experiment (I have six drawers to finish).

I have garnet shellac flakes, and am willing to purchase other flakes as well.

Also, I can purchase some dyes and/or stains and simply slap on some water based poly that I have (I have some two different types of water based poly sitting my shop right now).

Any thoughts on how to mix things up a bit and perhaps make them a bit more interesting.

Even a link or vague suggestions are likely sufficient.

[Steve Schoene]

Save the figured mahogany for where it shows and replace it with maple ply that matches the maple drawer sides. If you need to finish the drawer interiors use a couple of light coats of shellac.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I will give the shellac a try (since I have flakes). I will experiment a bit to see what looks best.

I already cut the drawer bottoms to size. Did not want to purchase another sheet of 1/2" ply for the bottoms, and this way, I can use up the ply.

I decided that I would experiment with the drawers since they are not seen often, so figured I could experiment a bit. I will try some dye to see if it helps pop the grain.

[Jim Becker]

For drawer boxes, unfinished, shellac or a water-borne clear finish would be my choices. Nothing oil based in drawers for me...

[Julie Moriarty]

I agree with Jim. Oil based finishes will never properly cure in a drawer.

[glenn bradley]

I leave my drawer boxes unfinished or shellac them if appropriate. No oils. I do oil drawer fronts and exposed sides but again, I shellac the side that faces the interior. Oil on an enclosed surface will carry an odor for what seems like forever.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Any thoughts on how to make the two woods look as nice as possible using a non-oil based finish?

I took a piece of the mostly uninteresting maple and a piece of the African mahogany today.

On 1/3 of each board, I added some transtint dye (water based), it is "golden maple" if I remember correctly (looked brown going on).

On 1/3 of each board, I also dyed it and then sanded it.

Then, on the entire board, I coated with Amber Shellac (I mixed some Dewaked flakes).

On both, I think that I prefer the sanded dye with the amber shellac. The liked the results with the African mahogany. Not sure it was worth the effort on the maple.

[John TenEyck]

It seems like you've answered your own question. If you like the look of the Transtint plus shellac, sure, why not? You can turn maple into almost any color you want with Transtint dyes, or Transtint plus shellac, or Trantint as a toner in shellac or WB topcoat. For example, this is a drawer front in maple that I dyed with Transtint in DNA, then sprayed with one or two coats of a toner made with Sealcoat shellac + amber shellac + Transtint, then topcoated with a WB clearcoat. You are limited only by your imagination and willingness to try different ideas.

263590

John

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Nice looking top. I came up with the Transtint + Amber shellac by searching the creek. I was not really happy with my results on the Maple. I am mostly doing this since it is a piece for myself and I wanted to experiment. Also, at least one drawers will receive significant abuse (because it will house a scanner), so I figured that I would put some sort of finish on it. It will be set to that the Mahogany bottom will be frequently highly visible, so, I figured I might as well make it look nice :-)