Finishing black walnut and QS white oak frame...

[Darl Bundren]

Just in time to be late for Mother's Day, I am making a frame for a mirror out of black walnut and quartersawn white oak. I am planning on using oil and then finishing with shellac. Do y'all think that this will sufficiently highlight the rays in the QS white oak, or should I do something else?

I've used the dye/fill the grain with stain/shellac/varnish schedule on oak before, but I am not sure I'll have the luxury of time that approach takes. Thanks.

[Steve Schoene]

One reason for varnish as the final coat of a mirror is the risk that someone uses a glass cleaner with ammonia that strays to the finish and dissolves the shellac. Ammonia is the primary risk to shellac on furniture, in my opinion.

An oil based pigmented stain will do the most to "pop" the flake on QS oak. Dye would tend to minimize it, unless you applied it and then sanded much of it off.

I would use a pigmented stain--fast drying solvent based such as Behlen's 15 minute stain if you can find it. It's a wiping stain, but you can't poke around using it. Then you can over coat after a half hour (15 minutes is OK I suppose the the cost of a bit of extra caution costs such a little amount of extra time.) Then use several coats of a good wiping varnish, such as Waterlox in what ever gloss you like. (It comes in Satin, Original/Sealer (which is semi-gloss) and Glosss.)