The lighting does “orange” it up. Actual color was more like the legs/stretchers. I just finished it with paste wax. Come to think of it, it might have been interesting to try a brown colored wax...
The lighting does “orange” it up. Actual color was more like the legs/stretchers. I just finished it with paste wax. Come to think of it, it might have been interesting to try a brown colored wax...
Maybe not for this project, Mark, but for the future consider SW's BAC Wiping Stain. It is the most amazing solvent based stain I've ever used. One coat gives deep color and I've had complete success with it on white oak. It dries in only an hour or two as well, so you can move on quickly. You need to spray a sealer over it, but if you don't have spray equipment you can use rattle can shellac, and then whatever you want over that.
John
One of the problems with white oak is that the wood has tyloses. These are outgrowths or "bubbles" on parenchyma cells of xylem vessels of secondary heartwood. They dam up the cells, effectively making the cells impervious to liquids. This is why wine and whiskey barrels are made from white oak - the wood is essentially waterproof because of the tyloses in the wood cells. I'm bringing this up because that's part of the problem in getting white oak to accept any kind of liquid stain into some of the wood pores - the wood won't absorb the liquid. This means you may have to apply a different strategy to get an even stain application. Stains that sit on the wood's surface, like gel stains can help solve the problem. You may want to try adding a gel stain as a final application.
Thanks Phil.
I don't suppose you know what kind of use your friends table is getting, and if the wax over Danish was enough protection. The end tables I am making are going to get pretty heavy daily use, drinks, meals,... but I really like the ultimate simplicity of wax over Danish.
FWIW, I just built a somewhat large new shop in celebration of my retirement. This is the first piece to be produced and I suspect all of my family and a few neighbors are going to be scrutinizing it, and hopefully not thinking 'nice shop, no skills'. I know how fast a bad finish can ruin a piece.
I went out tonight and got some yellow transtint, orange shellac, golden danish,..., oh ya, and some Bloxygen. I figure I'm already in about $200 for the sample finish materials for this project, so the Bloxygen should help preserve some of that investment. Eventually all the dye, stains, topcoat, and solvents will get used.
I suspect if those of you who have been finishing furniture for the past decade looked at all the finishing supplies in your shop, you'd be amazed at the investment. I should have had 'finishing supplies' in my original shop budget, alongside the tools.SaveSave
Mark McFarlane
Thanks Steve for the info. It makes sense this could be my problem, I just surprised I hadn't heard about it before, with white pine being such a common material.
The problem of 'dye not soaking in' that I am seeing on my project is only visible at a limited range of angles, ~45 degrees off the surface, so it is 'liveable'.
Mark McFarlane
Be aware, SW stores do NOT all carry same products.
They have like 3 or 4 like different divisions, not totally obvious unless you already know.
Call ahead to avoid disappointment.
I just purchased two more gal of BAC, really like the stuff.
Marc
Last edited by Marc Jeske; 01-25-2018 at 11:50 PM.
Mark, ask for a BAC Wiping Stain brochure the next time you are at SW's. It will show you all the stock colors. I have used those a couple of times. More often, however, I have had SW start with one of the stock colors and then custom tint it to the color I needed. That is another great thing about the BAC Wiping Stains. Custom tinting is an option at no extra charge. Once I worked with the tech. for at least 45 minutes making adjustments and wiping it on a sample board to see if the color was correct. No extra charge!
If you've never used solvent based dye stain before you are in for a pleasant surprise compared to typical pigment type oil stains.
John
Oh yeah, one more thing. You can adjust the color yourself with Transtint dyes if you first add the Transtint dye to a little acetone, and then add that mixture to the BAC wiping stain.
Mark, I was told it wouldn't get too much use, so I went with the simple finish. The upside is that if something does happen, it's pretty easy to strip the wax and redo the damaged area.
Here's an example of Watco Dark Walnut Danish Oil. I sanded the frame to a very fine grit, then blew the pores out with compressed air. Note: I used a small compressor with no oiler of any kind. I flooded the piece with oil that had been well shaken to assure any pigment particles were well suspended. I let it soak in for quite a long time, then wiped across the grain with t-shirt material to remove the excess. Topcoat is garnet shellac and brown tinted wax.
Here's another example with the same schedule. This time with some rift sawn white oak.
You might try sanding to a finer grit, or burnishing the surface with a handful of shavings to impede absorption in the non pore areas. I've taken to using a different approach lately, where I apply an aniline dye first, sand lightly, apply a wipe on stain, and then use a penetrating oil. It produces a nice finish with pronounced pore and flake contrast. See table below. Sorry for the huge image.
Sharp solves all manner of problems.