Mission Finish - Stain, TransTint Dye, Or ?

[Jay Albrandt]

Hello All,

I am finishing a white oak, cedar lined chest and I would like the end result to have the typical carmel finish of the mission style.

Can you suggest a stain that will allow the flake to show really well? Or, a transtint recipe that you have tried.

I typically use BLO with sprayed sealcoat and then wax or a water based poly as the final coat. With this project, I will likely spray sealcoat and then finish with wipe on poly.

Thanks,

Jay

[Lee Koepke]

I am not an expert, but I have read up on Mission Style finishes. Many of the peices were 'fumed' with ammonia. Not sure how that will work with a cedar lining, nor have I tried doing it yet.

[gary Zimmel]

Jay

To replicate the fumed color I use a dark walnut stain on most of my mission projects. Just a simple stain seems to make the ray fleck pop for me. The traditional look is darker than a carmel color. I did our mission living room furniture with an early american color stain and those pieces have a carmel color to them. I have an album posted in my profile if you would like to see some pieces that have a couple of different stain colors.

If you want to try fuming there are a couple of good threads about it. Someday I would like to give it a try...

What ever way you go make sure to post it so we can see the finished oak chest.

[Steve Schoene]

Check out the articles section of www.homesteadfinishing.com (http://www.homesteadfinishing.com) Jeff Jewitt presents a very good schedule for finishing mission oak.

But, interestingly enough, one of the major reasons for ammonia fuming is to avoid having the stain highlight the flake. Aniline dye would tend to emphasize the flake less, and pigmented stain more.

[John Keeton]

The Dec/Jan edition of Woodcraft magazine has an article on mission finish, and interestingly, suggests Homestead TransFast Dye Powder, Mission Brown, (Woodcraft # 123828), and Waterlox sealer/finish applied 4 coats with 0000 steel wool. They pretreat the wood with distilled water, and then cut off the raised grain with 220 sandpaper. The tone is regulated by the strength of the mix - and as always - test pieces are in order.

If you want to PM me, I can scan the article in .pdf for you.