Finishing Quilted Maple

[Andy Kev.]

I googled "best finish for quilted maple" and came up with this chap:

http://www.woodworkerssource.com/blog/t ... rly-maple/

I find his treatment no 3 to be the most interesting and love effect of the brown dye in the pic on the right. The chap is an American and he's using a brand of dye made by a firm called Behlen which is obviously available in the USA. Does anybody know of similar/identical dyes which are available in the UK or even Europe? I'm hoping that something exists as it is hard to imagine that the chemistry of days on this side of the Atlantic would radically differ from that of the American market.

 

[Peter Sefton]

This is the UK supplier of these products, never used them myself.

http://www.behlen.co.uk/Merchant2/merch ... Code=SBCOL

Cheers Peter

 

[Andy Kev.]

Peter,

thank you very much for the tip. I'll order some, try it out and if I can produce results that are fit to be seen in public, will report back.

Andy.

 

[marcros]

can you source transtint in germany? i have seen maple done similarly with that. I got some in the usa, and have been impressed. not aware of a supplier over here (UK) though.

 

[MIGNAL]

To be honest that's an awful way to finish Maple IMO. He's highlighted the figure but killed the holographic effect that figured Maple has. It has that 'burnt' look to the flame, which occurs when letting too much dye/stain leach into the figure. In other words, all the life has gone out of the wood. It may look impressive to those who aren't au fait with this sort of thing but to my eye it has a very hard, unnatural look to it. It's the kind of thing that needs to be seen in person to appreciate.
All of this is pretty well understood by the Violinmakers who have been finishing figured Maple for centuries. They know a thing or two about figured Maple. Violinmakers do use stains but they tend to be very, very subtle. Most of their colour comes from UV light and tints that are in the Vasrnish.

 

[Andy Kev.]

Mignal,

that's an interesting point of view. Are you in a position to recommend what you would regard as an optimal treatment? I'm open to suggestions and I intend to try out all my options on a couple of sticks of scrap before coming to a decision in any event.

 

[MIGNAL]

Well, optimal is subjective.
Try your stains but on off cuts. There are other stains that you can try. Make a strong tea stain by using 5 or so tea bags in boiling water. Apply to an off cut and it should turn your Maple a subtle Yellow colour. After 2 or 3 applications it will get darker but it will kill the holographic effect, the figure in your Maple will no longer 'dance' when you move the piece of wood. You should stop before you get to that stage. Some stains will allow you to go darker. After that it's a case of sealing the figure with a light coloured shellac. Once sealed you can then put on tinted coats of finish to build up the colour. The skill is putting on the coloured Varnish/Shellac evenly. It's easy to get it looking patchy but with practice it's certainly possible.

You can also try putting one or two coats of Danish Oil after the light stain. The Oil will pop the grain a little better than Shellac. Allow it to dry thoroughly before applying any other finish. You want the Danish Oil in the wood rather than sitting on top, otherwise you may get compatability issues. It also needs to be very dry.

You can also use tube Oil paints, known as the glazing method. A few are transparent enough to work but can only be used with Oil finishes on a surface that has been well sealed first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBggyLF_cgA

He uses a few different paints but I only use one or two.
There are many ways to finish Maple but I really don't like that burnt flame look of his last one. His earlier ones look better even if the figure isn't as pronounced.

 

[Andy Kev.]

I experimented at the weekend with three stains that I bought from the local DIY place, Danish oil on its own and tea (as per Mignal's Suggestion).

I gave the stains three coats and instead of sanding down, set my smoothing plane to produce ultra-thin shavings with the idea of leaving just the bits of grain which had taken up the stain. It seemed to work although it did not yield results that I was wholly satisfied with. However, I may experiment with that a little further.

Danish oil on its own was, as you might expect, pleasant but a bit innocuous and so the winner was tea - one coat of a five bag brew of Webster's Yorkshire Gold - followed by Danish oil. The result was, as predicted by Mignal, a subtle yellow colour. I was quite happy with only one application of tea but I intend to also try a two coat treatment.

I've hit on the idea of a coat or two of shellac as the final bit of finish. Will this be OK on top of the tea/Danish oil Treatment?

 

[MIGNAL]

Mix all three. Tea stain, then just one single wipe on/ wipe off application of Danish Oil. Let it dry thoroughly, 2 or 3 days. Then Shellac on top. You can use highly coloured Shellac - from Garnet through to virtually clear. You can even use tints to colour the Shellac further. A favourite of mine is a little bit of Alkanet tincture in a dark shellac, just a subtle amount to give it some warmth. This works especially well on American Black Walnut. As I stated previously, getting these highly coloured coats on evenly is difficult, especially on light coloured woods such as Maple . . but it is possible.

The Danish Oil will give a slightly better result than Shellac, which is related to the index of refraction of Oils. That's why you often hear that Oil 'pops the grain'. It does. Best is an all Oil finish but Shellac on top of a very, very thin application of Oil is a close second. You won't notice this until you have sufficient build up of finish and sometimes it's only when you do a side by side comparison that the difference is noticeable. Having said that Shellac by itself is perfectly OK, it's hardly a bad finish. These differences are subtle.