Finish recommendations

Re: Finish recommendations

David Barnett

>You'll have to experiment on scrap, but I'd suggest lightly wiping a very dilute water soluable aniline dye* in the medium brown range -- not too red, green, amber, anything -- then scraping (when dry) until you evenly remove most of it from the less porous figure. Lightly sand with very fine paper, maybe 320, then top with platinum blonde shellac, water-clear spray lacquer or acrylic. This should pop the grain yet maintain reflectance. You'd get more depth with a very light oiling, then shellac, but oil would more than likely add more amber than you apparently want.

*You can try off-the-shelf fabric dyes, teas, and so on, too.

Re: Finish recommendations

R.J.Whelan

>Steve,

If you can find it, you might try Daly's Profin - it's a modified urethane oil that is almost color neutral. I use it on figured and spalted maple frequently and it's never disappointed me - dead easy to use too: flood it on; wait 15 minutes (adding more oil to areas that dry out) and wipe dry; subsequent applications can be wiped dry within a minute or two. It comes in both satin and gloss; I use the satin and have no experience with the gloss.

Good luck - sounds like a fun project. I built a rolling cabinet for a serious fly tyer last year and loved the give and take of getting the design to exactly where he wanted it. Built the whole thing twice, once out of plywood and poplar to work out all of the design issues and the second time out of cherry and maple; a friend of the customer ended up buying the prototype (cool beans).

-rj-

Pretty much anything is darken it.

Scott Burr in down to 76 deg Ben Lomond,CA

>IMHO. I like oil finishes on maple like this to "pop" the grain. Here's what it looks like with a few coats of BLO...

I have a feeling that's going to be one nice looking chest.

Thanks guys, I think I'll try the Profin

Steve S., Coastal GA

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