Here's a picture of one of the Lane Acclaim tables, at least 50 years old, so the colors include the effect of aging.



These tables typically were made from walnut and oak, but that doesn't look like oak to me. In any case, that's the golden glow my customer is referring to.

Here is a finish recipe I previously proposed:




I've made dozens and dozens of specimens. Here are a couple more after I started looking at OB varnish as the topcoat to get a golden glow.






I haven't shown the last two specimens to my customer yet. The first one seems directionally correct, but I'd like to get a little deeper amber on the maple. It was made with amber shellac + some Transtint Dark Vintage Maple, followed by the OB varnish, just one coat so more might make it darker. The other obvious idea would be to add more dye to the amber shellac.

Any thoughts?

John