Curly Maple - how to make end grain look good?

[bob stephenson]

Hi,

Apologies if this has been asked a million times, did a quick search and did not see anything relevant off the bat. I'm fairly new at woodworking and may have bitten off more than I can chew with this project. Atached is a picture of the blank that I've glued up. It is curly maple with walnut strips and a piece of bloodwood in the center. The finished product - a clock - will be oriented vertically as in the picture. The top will be bandsawed to match the radius of the clock insert.

The problem - I would like an oil finish to show off the curly maple, but what do I do with the end grain on the top? I tried the oil finish on a test piece cut to the approximate shape and it looked awful. I then tried a water-based sanding sealer on the end grain but that alone also looked pretty bad. I have not tried shellac due to the presence of the bloodwood (alcohol apparently makes the red bloodwood pigment run) or any other type of sealer yet.

There's -got- to be a way to make this look right.

Any and all assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Pics attached. Thanks!

-Bob462515462518462517

[Phil Mueller]

I’ll usually sand end grain to a high grit. Some say one or two grits higher than the face sides. I tend to go to 600, even 800. Should keep the finish from going much darker than the rest of the piece.

[Steve Jenkins]

Sanding is key. If you looks the endgrain it will look kind of cloudy. You need to sand it until the cloudiness is gone. Looking at your pics I can even see scratches from a coarser grit.

[roger wiegand]

Yup, sanding. Through all the grits, to something well beyond 400, until it looks good through a low power magnifying glass. It will absorb more oil or finish and be darker than the side grain, but it would look unnatural otherwise. When the sanding is right (or if you are good with a plane, a perfectly planed surface) it will look really nice with lots of interesting structure if you look closely.

[bob stephenson]

Thanks for the tips. gentlemen. Sanding to a high grit seems to be the consensus, so I will give that a go on a test piece this evening. I hadn't attempted anything on either of the pieces in the pics, just included them to give an idea what I was working with. Should I even be considering some type of sanding sealer on the end grain only, or is the recommendation to abandon that idea entirely?

Thanks again,

-Bob

[Phil Mueller]

I’ve never used a sanding sealer on end grain after sanding to a high grit. You may want to test both ways and see what you prefer.

[bob stephenson]

This is after a just quick trip through the grits from 150 to 800 on a piece of scrap, and a wipe of Danish oil. Looks like this is the way to go. Can't wait to get cranking on the actual piece in the morning.

This is cool. Thanks again, guys.

-Bob

[Phil Mueller]

Yep, that’s how it should look. Nice job.