Maple Stain - Spice?

[Mark Rios]

I'm starting a kitchen remodel for a repeat customer. They went to Home Depot and saw a set of maple cabs with a "Spice" stain. It's called "Maple Spice"; they also have a "Hickory Spice" (or Posh Spice and Sporty Spice. Just kidding :D ) Similar stain colors, just different wood. The cabinets will be made of maple ply and solid maple. (Birch ply for the unseen carcasses of course.)

Any ideas on this color stain? Is it available at the retail level? I won't be the one staining it; I have a painter that I use do the finishing for me on bigger projects. Do I have the painter put a clear finish on top of the "Spice"?

I've only had the painter spray clear on other projects for me and I was hoping I could get your expert knowledgeable guidelines so that when I talk to him, he doesn"t (whether purposely or not) steer me in a wrong direction.


Thanks very much for any help and advice.

[Jim Becker]

Mark...forget the color names...they are abitrary and come from the marketing department to make them seem more attractive. In that, they are meaningless on the retail shelves.

Try to obtain a sample of the finished product and do some experimentation in your shop to come up with a finishing regimen that works on the species your customer wants. Many factory finishes are also multi-step...there is no one "stain" that is used to come up with the color that they call "whatever". You may need to start with a dye and then tone with shellac or another intermediate step followed by your intended top coat to get the color you need.

[Mark Rios]

Thanks Jim. I really should take a class on finishing or something so that I , at least, know a little about the finishing process.

I finally was able to (just now while writing this) get ahold of the painter and he said that I could just get him a sample of the color and a piece of the door/face frame material and he can play with it and get a match.

He said that maple is kind of hard to stain.? Is this correct? He said that the wood is hard and that it doesn't take stain well. I wasn't aware that maple was hard to stain. Any comments?

[Todd Burch]

Maple can be hard to stain, depending on the "stain".

Maple has little bitty pores and is a "denser" wood, so absorbtion is not as good, and since the pores are so small, less pigment (if using a pigment stain) will color the wood.

Now, on the other hand, Maple is not hard to "color". There are other products on the market that are much easier, and a lot of times faster, than a typical stain.

I use achohol based toners (think of them as dye stains) for fast coloring. These can take two different woods, like poplar and cherry, and make them look the same (to the casual observer). The ones I use require spray application.

So, maple is "harder" to get a good stain job with pigment stains, but easy as pie to get a good stain job with dye stains.

The pigment stains I use (ML Campbell) do a satisfactory (as opposed to unsatisfactory) job on any wood.

[Jim W. White]

Todd gives good advice above.

Maple is very hard to "Stain" but not impossible to "color". I just did a big peice using water based analyne dye and was happy with the results. It was definately a learning experience though.