I have been reading in this forum the past weeks all of the stories on finishing Maple and Birch, some are very successful and some noted some issues and concerns. I am a decent builder with good technique but I am mostly self taught on all Oak projects that I just stained with minwax pigment stains and finished off with teac oil or poly. Hard to go wrong with that but therin lies my inexperience.
OK, hope I can get great advice and I am sure I will from all you pros out there. I have built a 6' long 'media sideboard' which I call just a very nice and large TV stand. The cabinet itself is made of all birch plywood, face frame and solid wood top is made of solid maple along with 4 raised panel maple cabinet doors. I am very happy with the results and I am anxiouse to post it in the completed projects section of sawmill creek for you all to see.
Did I mention I have never finished maple or birch before??? The customer wants the color to be that of a deep red/brown look, I believe it resembles that of red mahogany. I did several practice boards today, experimenting with using reddish brown transtint dye, red mahogany transtint dye, lowe's clear shellac and amber shellac. The customer wants the finish to be semi gloss poly. The best matches I came up with was this formula:
1. coat of red mahogany mixed full strength with 50/50 denatured alcohol and water
2. coat of amber shellac
3. light sanding
4. coat of red mahogany (to get darker as the customer wishes darker)
5. coat of amber shellac
6. 1st coat of poly
Of course I could go 3 coats of red mahogany to darken more if needed. The amber shellac seems to darken the overall color more which I think is preferred. Please, any suggestions would be appreciated. I did try a coat of shellac before applying tint but I did not like the visual results. What grit sand paper should I use after the shellac dries? Also, the last sanding done on the project was with 150 grit, I read were you should not go further than 120 on maple and if so then should I resand with using 120 before actually doing the finish?
P.S. The next time a customer wants this darker color I will recommend Mahogany for the wood instead of trying to darken a lighter wood, just a thought.
Thanks a lot for all of everyone's input as it is greatly appreciated.
Jerry