Finishing Windsor Chairs

[Mike Holbrook]

I am not a fan of milk paint or the other paints that are frequently used on Windsors. My continuous Arm has white oak, white pine and maple. My other chair uses red oak and the same other two woods. I am thinking about some sort of finish with a stain in it or a stain then finish. I like WATCO. Is it a workable finish for my chairs? I was thinking of WATCO dark Red Mahogany. Will the dark color make the differences in the woods less visible? Maybe a lighter, natural or golden oak color would actually help mask the differences in the woods better? The woods as they are on my two chairs seem fairly close in color. I imagine the different woods will stain differently though.

Any suggestions or pointers are appreciated.

[Steve Schoene]

There is a good reason that Windsor chairs are traditionally painted. The different woods take stains quite differently. If I weren't going to paint them I'd start with dye. In this case I'd likely choose a non-grain-raising dye. You may need to treat different portions differently. After you get the dye about "right" then you can use a top coat. Personally, I like shellac, but Watco will work for a matt finish.

Incidentally, while we generally see period Windsor in very dark, almost black green, that's not the original color. The original color was about the color of spring grass. But, the particular pigment that was used rather quickly began to darken so that by now it has developed the dark green we see.

[Mike Holbrook]

Steve,
Thanks for your thoughts. I will look into dyes to start the wood coloring process. Interesting information on the original colors and how we arrived at what we see today. I just like for wood to look and feel like wood, maybe I have just dealt with to many pseudo substances. It does not feel right to me to spend personal time with green wood and hand tools only to paint over all that straight grain I worked so hard to expose.