Curly maple - best finish??

[Nick Mazzino]

Hi all,

What finish do you recommend or have used for curly maple to bring out the "curl" the best?

I have used Odies oil in a recent project but was potentially looking for something else.
If you have some pictures, I would love if you shared them.

Thanks,
Nick

[Julie Moriarty]

My first foray into making wood pop I used boiled linseed oil. BLO seemed to be the big favorite for that. Most of the curly maple I've worked with was for guitars. BLO was not a good choice for necks. So I just sprayed them with lacquer. Over the years the natural darkening created pretty much the same effect the BLO did.

This is quilted maple with BLO underneath NC lacquer.
http://julimorcreations.com//Images/AsianDinLite_02.png

[Steve Schoene]

For most dramatic figure start with dilute water mixed dark brown powdered dye. After the dye has dried sand the surface so that where the wood is porous the dye penetrates deeply and does not sand off.

It does take lots of testing to get the right color and concentration of the dye and how much to sand. It’s a lot of work but outcome can be spectacular.

[glenn bradley]

So many answers on this. Do you want to keep the lighter color? This is flooded with shellac (to soak deep into the curl) and then top coated with shellac.

403862

This is multiple dyes sanded back to remove the dye from the hardwood and leave it in the curl. It is then dyed with a lighter color and top coated clear.

403865

This one is again, just shellac on birdseye.

403863

Charles Neil has a similar method (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWCptCxNx4I)if you are going dark. Another of Charles' videos here. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH4hWNMp5Ec)

[Jim Becker]

I like the technique that Steve describes...dye and sand back, often more than once. I might add another color after that to richen it more and then complete the rest of my typical finishing regimen. (BLO, de-waxed shellac and water borne clear)