Popping the grain on ash

[Dan Baginski]

After a lot of searching I’m surprised I wasn’t able to find any info on this. I’m currently building an entertainment center from white ash. I’ve tried a few finishes on some scrap. One was just wipe on poly by itself. Didn’t do much. The next was two coats of dewaxed shellac and one coat of wipe on poly. Not bad, enhanced the grain quite a bit. I then did 2 coats of arm r seal. Didn’t do much either.

Everything I read about oils says it will yellow this wood, which I don’t want. It’s ok if it darkens it but I don’t want any yellowing. At least not excessive yellowing. My next step is to try some pure Tung oil. But before I spend the money on Tung oil just to test it out, does anybody have any other ideas?

The shellac and poly looks good but I’m wondering if there is anything else I could do to enhance it just a bit more.

Cheers.

[Bennett Ostroff]

My favorite stain on ash is dark walnut Danish oil (pic 1). Topcoat as you please. Most oil based stains will do a good job popping grain on ash, imo. Pic 2 is General Finishes maple. Sometimes two coats are needed to fill all the open pores. An oil on its own without any pigment will just yellow it, like you said.

[Jim Becker]

Dan, try using a pigment stain of medium color and then carefully sand it back so only the color is in the pores. Then try your intended top coat, such as the de-waxed shellac followed by the oil based varnish. ANY oil based product is going to add an amber tint to some degree and so will the shellac. You may also still get some natural "yellowing" because that's what happens to many wood species over time. "Nature" of the beast... ;)

BTW...test anything on scrap of the same material you're building with. (Say no more...)

[Jamie Buxton]

“Popping the grain” generally means showing off the wood’s chatoyance. That often means curly lumber. Ash generally doesn’t have much chatoyance.

However, if what you mean is that you’d like to emphasize the patterns formed by the growth rings, ash does that well. The pigments in pigment stain lodge in the wood’s large pores, and emphasize those patterns.

[John TenEyck]

If you don't want your finish to yellow over time then you should use a WB acrylic or polyurethane-acrylic topcoat. GF's High Performance finish is one such product, and it has a UV stabilizer package in it that will keep both the finish and underlying wood from yellowing for a very long time.

John

[Rob Young]

“Popping the grain” generally means showing off the wood’s chatoyance. That often means curly lumber. Ash generally doesn’t have much chatoyance.

However, if what you mean is that you’d like to emphasize the patterns formed by the growth rings, ash does that well. The pigments in pigment stain lodge in the wood’s large pores, and emphasize those patterns.

Agreed, ash can have some curl but it isn't terribly pronounced and doesn't really "pop" the way say maple or cherry would.

And it is pretty easy to make the open-grain structured woods have high contrast between the rings.

Here's a test piece I did experimenting with dyes, porefilling (dying some plaster of paris) and a quick topcoat of lacquer from a rattle can:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8549/28652948103_a5b52ffe71_z.jpg

And another where I was fiddling with a bit more of the greenish cast you find on some Mission furniture:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8149/28652952173_e918b11aa3_z.jpg

I've had these sitting around for almost two years now and they still look pretty good. Don't really notice any issues with the PP coming out of the pores. But if you look closely at the Mission green sample, you can see that I didn't do a very good job mixing the PP with its dye as there is some white visible. I don't have my notes, it is possible I did that one by first pore filling with just PP and then dying instead of first putting a little dye into the PP mixture. I know I did it both ways on some samples.

[Tom Bender]

My go to approach;

Sand

Minwax Special Walnut stain, wipe on, wipe off, dry for a day or three

Sand the slight raised grain

Stain again

One or two coats of 1 pound cut Super Blonde Shellac

Crocus cloth to take the shine off. It's hard to use Shellac and not have some runs. The shine really shows them.

Done

For an entertainment center you don't need a durable finish. It's not going to see liquids or wear.

[Ted Phillips]

On really porous wood - like ash and oak - I like to use a grain filler to get a smoother final appearance. I have used a dark shade of Timbermate to fill the pores, applying it thin (about the consistency of mayo) and scrape it into the pores with a credit card or scraper. Let it dry and then sand back down to bare wood. Finish with the topcoat of your choice.

[Michael Costa]

I'm a total rookie with finishing so take this with a grain of salt. I do a lot of turning and find that BLO really makes a piece of wood look beautiful.

[Dan Baginski]

Everything I read said that oils will turn the ash very yellow. They made it sound like a nasty urine yellow. But you have to consider the source. I’m still playing around with the suggestions.

[Jim Becker]

"What kind" of oil matters, Dan...some oils are lighter in color than others and have less "warming" effect on color. No harm in experimenting on scrap of the same material to try a whole bunch of things and see what works best for you! Just be sure that any oil you try is a "drying oil" and not some thing like mineral oil which doesn't dry.

[Dan Baginski]

I’ll have to pick some up and do more experimenting.

[Dan Baginski]

I bought some pure Tung Oil from rockler and did a test. The board on the top has the Tung Oil and the bottom board is dewaxed shellac. There’s almost no difference. In face the shellac showed a bit more of the very subtle grain. More so than the Tung Oil. Not what I expected.

[Dan Baginski]

Well the photo is sideways. The board on the left has the Tung Oil

[Art Mann]

I have never been able to see the value of Tung oil. It works like boiled linseed oil to me but is more expensive, dries slower and is harder to find.

[Jamie Buxton]

I bought some pure Tung Oil from rockler and did a test. The board on the top has the Tung Oil and the bottom board is dewaxed shellac. There’s almost no difference. In face the shellac showed a bit more of the very subtle grain. More so than the Tung Oil. Not what I expected.

Put your test boards in direct bright sunlight for as long as you can stand. A half year would be good. Finishes, and ash, go yellow with time.