help with wood species selection for upcoming projects

[Thomas Crawford]

I have some upcoming projects for living room furniture (end tables, sideboard) and the wife and our designer are requesting a very light colored wood. I am not really wanting to paint the pieces at the end, so I thought easy, I can show them some pieces of maple and that will work. They think it is too yellow and asked about white oak. I'm thinking they would just want painted pieces if I was not involved

So I guess the question is what wood species should I try to target with this to get the most neutral light color? My experience here is that there is a ton of variation within species and I could end up with white oak that has a pink or yellow cast to it as well. I think something trending toward a light grey color is what they would be happy with.

What I have available to me locally is Maple (hard/soft/birdseye/curly) and White Oak (4/4 QS, up to 8/4 rift/plain) that I would consider "light" in color. I'm assuming Red Oak is too dark.

In y'alls experience working with white oak how hard is it to select skip planed 4/4 and 8/4 boards that match up well in color? Is getting a large stack of grey-toned white oak a realistic hope? I've just never even looked through the pile and won't get up there until next Tuesday. Am I being a snob not to want to paint it?

[Jarod Johnson]

It is a noble mission you're on, not wanting to paint nice furniture.

I find what makes the most difference for the yellow tint of both maple and white oak is the finish you use. I have a maple cutting board that got only mineral oil and it's VERY yellow, but a similar bar cart top finished with Osmo PolyX didn't yellow nearly as much. My white oak dining table got finished with Rubio Monocoat Smoke 5% and it made it even whiter. It might be worth looking into tinted Rubio or a water based poly in order to prevent yellowing as much as possible.

[Thomas Crawford]

It is a noble mission you're on, not wanting to paint nice furniture.

I find what makes the most difference for the yellow tint of both maple and white oak is the finish you use. I have a maple cutting board that got only mineral oil and it's VERY yellow, but a similar bar cart top finished with Osmo PolyX didn't yellow nearly as much. My white oak dining table got finished with Rubio Monocoat Smoke 5% and it made it even whiter. It might be worth looking into tinted Rubio or a water based poly in order to prevent yellowing as much as possible.

I think that tinted Rubio might be the way to go. They have a nice page with estimates for each wood species for each color.

[Jimmy Harris]

I agree in that I'm thinking that they're seeing the yellow tint and not realizing it comes from the finish, not the wood. A clear, water-based finish will probably get you there with maple. Maybe show them some raw maple and let them decide, instead of letting them look at finished maple pieces.

I avoid oak like the plague. It's not that it's a bad wood. It's great actually! It's just that it's everywhere, and no longer looks interesting or special. Oak is, to me, just the look of generic wood. But I've also learned to pick your battles, and if building furniture out of oak makes your wife happy, then suck it up and enjoy your time in the shop!

[James Jayko]

How about ash?

[Thomas Crawford]

I have never seen ash available down here (Texas).

Looking into finishes I'm wondering about this Linseed oil wax -> https://sagerestoration.com/collections/linseed-oil-wax

The white or grey tints could get what they want possibly.

[Edward Weber]

The water-based poly finishes don't yellow like oil-based finishes do.

[Michael Burnside]

It's pretty easy to lighten wood. I recently finished a sofa table with Red Oak. I then used a Rubio Monocoat pre-color of mint white and followed up with a coat of Rubio cotton white. I've done something similar using Rubio Urban Grey and a final stain of pure for a very light grey set of side tables.

[Prashun Patel]

Use maple. The other woods you have available will not be as white.

I completely agree that most maple is yellow because of the top coat, not the wood.

Use a waterbased top coat. I've used a couple Target Coatings products. You can spray them extremely easily if you have HVLP or a compressor/gun. lately I've used EM9300, their "polycarbonate" coating. The matte finish is extremely white, and goes on with a foam brush very well. They don't yellow over time. Some of their other products (EM8000) are more yellow. General Finishes Endurovar also adds amber, but their other product Clear Poly will not yellow. In fact, you can get their Clear Poly in an opaque white if you wish. Target Coatings will has a tintable lacquer (waterbased) product that they can match to any Sherwin Williams/Benj Moore color. I've used it and it also sprays wonderfully.

If the linseed oil wax product has any real linseed oil in it, it will likely yellow over time.

[Mel Fulks]

Hard Maple is whiter than soft maple

[Andrew Hughes]

Yellow is a primary color it’s in the wood certain finishes bring it out.
Especially oil finishes
White oak has yellow in it too.
Good Luck

[John TenEyck]

All woods will change color over time. Many finishes will age, too. Maple is nice and white when first planed, but yellows over time (years) under almost any finish, the exception being those with a 2 component UV stabilization package in it. One prevents the finish for yellowing, the other the underlying wood. KemAqua Plus is one finish I know of that has such a package. That said, any acrylic WB finish will give a very neutral color to the wood, and it will stay that way until the wood ages. Matte or flat finishes will look like nothing has been applied. TC's EM-6000 series is really good for this. Prashun, you mentioned EM-9300 but my recollection is that it is very amber in color. And I agree with others that RM would be a potentially excellent option on white oak. Some of their color samples on white oak look very light.

Anything with linseed oil would be verboten with me if the concern is yellowing.

Make some test boards with various finishes and see what the boss likes.

And, yes, to whoever said ash is very white. It yellows over time, too, but no more than maple. Rift sawn white ash and white oak are very attractive to me with their subtle horizontal grain, very different from quarter sawn white oak or either of them plain saw. To me, it's a very elegant, modern look.

Sycamore is another very white wood. Might be tough to get, but QS sycamore is shockingly beautiful. Hard as nails, too.

John

[Michael Burnside]

Yellow is a primary color it’s in the wood certain finishes bring it out.
Especially oil finishes
White oak has yellow in it too.
Good Luck

Correct. Which is why I recommended my process. I've done specifically what the OP is requesting, multiple times on multiple species of wood. If you're going to try and cheat the system by not pre-staining the wood a base color, I don't care if it's water or oil based, it's going to yellow over time. My sofa table that I stained this way is 4 years old and looks exactly the same as it did the day I brought it in.

[Stan Calow]

Agree with James - ash is what I would use here, and there's plenty of it cheap since all the ash trees are dying. Too bad its not common where you are. I've used sycamore a couple of times and I swear it will warp and twist just as you're looking at it.

[Richard Coers]

I have never seen ash available down here (Texas).

Looking into finishes I'm wondering about this Linseed oil wax -> https://sagerestoration.com/collections/linseed-oil-wax

The white or grey tints could get what they want possibly.

Using anything with linseed oil in it will be a strong amber and get darker with age.