Looking to pop the grain

[John Harden]

Building a toy/blanket chest for my son. Walnut frame with panels that will be a veneered lighter wood. Leaning towards either a birds eye or tiger maple as I have a lot of both.

Anyone got a good method to really pop the figured grain? I've heard of using a dye of some sort, but I don't want to darken the overall color of the wood too much, so recommendations here are appreciated as well.

I'm thinking a dye, then a boiled linseed oil to help bring out the grain followed by some sort of top coat. Not a real big fan of poly, but it's not off the table as a choice.

Anyone got some good finishing recommendations for this application?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Regards,

John

[Matt Meiser]

I did a walnut table last year and used orange shellac on that. I really like the way it turned out. On a maple bed I did, I just used wipe on poly and liked the way that turned out as well. It didn't pop the grain like BLO, but also didn't darken the wood like BLO. For both pieces, I did testing on sample pieces to make sure I liked the look.

[Howard Acheson]

First, don't forget to not use any oil or oil based finish on the interior. Oil off-gases almost forever and any cloth or clothing will become permeated with the odor. Either leave in unfinished or use shelllac or a waterborne finish.

Nothing pops the grain of walnut like an oil. You can use either boiled linseed oil or a real, pure tung oil. I generally go with the latter followed by a coat of amber shellac, then a couple of wiped on coats of non-poly varnish.

[Steve Schoene]

You can use a dye with only a little overall darkening of figured maple. You mix a very dilute solution of a dark brown dye. Then, when the dye has dried you sand the surface. This would remove the darkening effect of the dye on the bulk of the wood, but since the dye penetrates more deeply into the figured areas it is not removed by the sanding. HOWEVER,be sure to do a test on a large sample prepared the same way as the panels. If the veneer is not thick enough, or if the glue holding down the veneer has penetrated to or close to the surface, this could give unwanted problems.

Shellac would look very good on these woods. It would get dinged up a bit in this use, but would be extremely easy to repair. Polyurethane might not show quite as many dings, but any that it did suffer would be quite hard to repair. And, if you do decide you need a varnish top coat, go with a traditional resin varnish, such as Behlen's Rockhard. It will be nearly as protective, and be only a little easier to repair, but more importantly it will look better because it lacks the bit of cloudiness that poly brings--that people call the plastic look.

[Jerry Olexa]

I'd say BLO to pop the grain. Does wonders on many unfinished woods

[John Harden]

Thanks for the advice guys. I tried some BLO on a sample of the veneer and it did a really good job of bringing out the grain. Seemed to dry pretty quickly too, but it's uncommonly hot and dry here right now, so that could have been a contributing factor.

Totally agree about not using oil on an interior surface. Recently made a chest of drawers/changing table for my newborn son and used shellac for the interior for this very reason. Worked out well.

Thanks for all the advice!!!!

Regards,

John