Best finish for curly maple?

[Nick Mazzino]

Making a few jewelry boxes out of curly maple.
Looking for simple, easy finish recommendations you you guys use to really make the wavy grain pop.

Thanks!
Nick

[glenn bradley]

Shellac . . .

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I flood the first coat to get the shellac deep into the softer material.

[Edward Dyas]

There is a lot of different finishes that would work well. The important thing is you don't use an oil based finish since it yellows as it ages. You could apply linseed oil or a natural stain to make the grain pop and after it dried well you could put any acrylic finish over the top. You could use a water based polyurethane or what would be quicker and easier would be a cab acrylic lacquer, also known as butyrate lacquer. Just keep in mind that linseed oil is incompatible with most waterborne finishes so let it dry as much as a week before topcoating. If it was warm and dry 24 hours would be enough.

[Bill McNiel]

Waterlox, the amber tint really works well with Maple (more than shellac) and pops the grain.

[Phil Mueller]

Depends on how much you want it to “pop”. If Glenn’s example are what you are looking for, shellac, waterlox, ArmRSeal, will all get you there. If you’re looking for something more dramatic, there are various stain/sand methods, but not as simple. Here’s a video you might find interesting:

https://youtu.be/-NlNIJKLFtA

[Prashun Patel]

Sand it to a high grit and then use an oilbased finish or shellac.

[Nick Mazzino]

Thanks all. I have not had a chance to watch the video that Phil posted. Maybe there will be more detail in there.
But, I am looking for a figured amber finish like the attached picture. Does anyone know what kind of finish is used for this color? I assume a type of amber dye?420343

[Prashun Patel]

I will bet money they did it using Jeff Jewitt's technique in the FWW article "Pop the Curl in Curly Maple" (Mar/apr 1999).

Basically, he uses a dark dye to absorb into the curl, then sands it back to remove it from the non-curly areas. This provides the contrast. Then he colors using a second, lighter amber dye. Finally, he topcoats.

The color and contrast come from the dye.

[Nick Mazzino]

Thanks Prashun!

I am not a member of FWW so I cannot read the full article. I am new to woodworking. Could you provide any specifics on dark dye or lighter amber dye to use? Any recommendations on these dyes or topcoats?

[Jim Becker]

I've used the method that Prashun mentions multiple times and it works beautifully. You can go as dark as you want for that first step which may or may not be repeated more than once....apply, dry, sand back until the effect is there. I've used browns, but some folks go all the way to "serious black". The workpiece looks like poo-poo before you sand it back, but once you do that one or more times and then go back with your overall color, the effect can be amazing. Guitar builders do this a lot with highly, highly figured, really EXPENSIVE maple all the time.

[Prashun Patel]

You can search out this video: "How to Make Figured Maple Pop" by Wood and Shop. It's a similar technique.

To be honest, if you can get hold of Jeff Jewitt himself (Homestead Finishing) He may just give you advice from the horse's mouth.

[Jim Becker]

Jeff is pretty accessible as far as I know...although he'll appreciate some business I'm sure. He's the "horse's mouth" for TransTint dyes for sure...I just bought some more from him in the past week.

[Edward Dyas]

The color looks like amber shellac to me.

[Rob Luter]

Here's another good video. I think it's the same one Prashun suggests above. He's using Jeff Jewitt's dyes


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLEpJBvQbxs