Maple Ply and Maple Hardwood Color Match

[glenn bradley]

I did up some samples for a maple shelf unit. The customer has agreed to an overall blond finish so I'm good for this piece. This question is for future projects. I had a hard time getting a good color match between the ply and the solid woods.

I used the same preparation protocol as far as sanding grits and sealed the ply with Zinsser's to avoid the blotchyness. The ply was more resistant to color absorption than expected. Would BLO have been a better choice?

[Steve Schoene]

Veneer on plywood is so thin that you can't really expect to sand it with the same schedule as the solid wood. It should only need very light "cleaning" with your final grit--180 or 220 grit. Once it gets very thin, you start getting into the zone where the glue has started to penetrate the fibers--blocking peneration of the dye or stain. I don't think BLO would be a better blotch blocker, I'd just use a lighter cut of shellac.