How do you finish a project with an inlay?

[Jeff Monson]

I'm getting done with a cross project and it is an oak construction with a maple inlay, I need to stain the oak and not the maple as I want that natural, so whats the best process to accomplish this?? Does one sand everything smooth, remove the inlay, stain, reinstall the inlay and final finish? or is the inlay somehow taped off?

[Steve Schoene]

There are several approaches, but with oak you could use a chemical dye that affects the oak (with lots of tannin) and have little impact on the maple (with much less tannin). Potassium dichromate is sometimes used for this purpose. But be aware this is a toxic chemical so extraordinary care in mixing, storing, and applying are called for. It's effects aren't totally consistent because the amounts of tannin vary between trees so you will have to experiment with scraps of the same material to determine how concentrated the solution should be.

Another approach is to seal the inlay with carefully applied shellac. While not hazardous, it is hard to avoid missed spots or places where small amounts flow over onto the oak from the maple inlay.

[Doug Shepard]

I've done the taping-off approach a few times with just OK results. I'm not sure it's totally possible to avoid getting a little flow over. I will say that a pigment stain works better than a dye stain in terms of cleaning up the bad spots. At least if you do get a few spots that cross the line, you can usually scrape it clean again with small scrapers or razor blades. Make sure your tape is really pressed down tight too.

[tod evans]

jeff, if your inlay isn`t glued yet then staining the oak first is the best approach. in fact if you haven`t cut the recess for the inlay stain and seal the oak then cut the recess, glue in your inlay and carefully scrape `till it`s flush. the sealer coat will let you know when you`re getting close `cause it`ll dust up......02 tod

[Rob Millard]

Jeff,

I’ve made many pieces furniture with inlays, but never using oak. The best way I’ve found to color inlaid pieces is with some sort of chemical treatment, but this gives a very limited range of colors. In the case of red oak, my favorite coloring agent lime, has almost no effect. Lye will turn red oak, green ( not very attractive, but interesting). White oak will turn a nice brown when coated with lime. I have not tried lye on white oak. I’ve used potassium dichromate only once and that was on mahogany, so I have no idea what it would do to oak.
If I were going to finish an oak piece inlaid with maple, I would install the inlays ,and sand as normal. I would then seal the inlays with deft brushing lacquer using an artist brush. I’m fortunate in that I have excellent eyesight, up close, so I have little difficulty staying on line. The key is to have great lighting and a appropriate sized brush. The only potential problem I see, is that the large pores of the oak may leach out the lacquer through capillary attraction, but the Deft is pretty thick, so this may not be a concern. After two coats of lacquer, I’d color the oak with a gel stain. They are thick enough to minimize any bleeding into the inlay.
Rob Millard