How to stop Maple yellowing

[ScouseKev]

Hi Gents.

I'm making a walnut box with maple end caps.

I want to finish it with a sprayed lacquer using an Earlex 5000 i bought some time ago.

2 questions. How can i stop the maple pieces from yellowing and what lacquer should i use?

Thanks in advance. Kev

 

[ED65]

I don't think you can permanently stop any wood changing colour in the way it's naturally inclined to. You can only slow the process, not prevent it. Unless you keep the thing in the dark or in dim lighting permanently.

 

[RobinBHM]

I think water based lacquer is whiter than solvent based, however nothing will stop UV from changing the colour over time.

 

[Jake]

Paint it!

Slightly more seriously, some white pigment in a non-yellowing water-based lacquer with some sort of UV inhibitors will stave it off a bit for a while but its only delaying some of the inevitable.

 

[custard]

If you're spraying then you've some slightly more effective options open to you. Morrels clear Omnia is a water borne exterior finish that seems to buy you a few extra years of yellowing protection on pale timbers, if you keep your box away from direct sunlight that would translate into a material gain.

Another possibility is Holly, which seems to stay white for considerably longer than Maple or Sycamore. The difficulty is finding good quality white Holly. Up until ten years or so ago it was fairly easy to source, now it's anything but. I've been told that warmer winters are to blame, but I contacted people I know in Canada and the USA with a view to importing and I'm hearing the same story from them, bright white Holly is very thin on the ground.

Or there's two pack bleach, but that's such nasty stuff to use that it's impractical in most cases.

Finally there's a soap finish for open grained paler timbers like Ash. Labour intensive, low protection, and high maintenance. But you do get that bone white, matt finish that is so on trend at the moment.

It's interesting, since the late 1990's many designers and furniture makers have used a combination of steamed American Black Walnut with Maple in the US and steamed ABW with Sycamore in the UK. We're now seeing a lot of that work looking pretty dreary as sunlight has turned the steamed Walnut to a washed out muddy brown and the Maple/Sycamore has turned a nasty tangerine colour. Ho hum.

 

[BRYAN]

I believe the recommendation when drying holly is to stack vertically,or leaning to prevent yellowing as it dries.
I don't know if this applies to any other timbers though.

 

[marcros]

how quickly after applying an oil finish will the pale timber turn to the yellow that it is famed to turn to- is it instant, weeks or longer? I wiped some tung oil over rippled sycamore last night, and it looked excellent- just how i wanted it. Will that change over time?

 

[Sgian Dubh]

how quickly after applying an oil finish will the pale timber turn to the yellow that it is famed to turn to- is it instant, weeks or longer? I wiped some tung oil over rippled sycamore last night, and it looked excellent- just how i wanted it. Will that change over time?

An oil finish has an immediate darkening effect, linseed oil moreso than pure tung oil, whether in both cases used along or as constituent parts of another finish, e.g., an oil based varnish. In your case it sounds as if the darkening effect was what you were hoping for.

As to the long term colour change, in typical average light and oxidation conditions, you should be able to notice a significant difference in this over a six or twelve month period. For example, if the part experiences internal and external conditions (a cabinet door panel, etc), the likelihood is there will be a significant difference in colour between the inner surface and the outer surface. Slainte.

 

[marcros]

thank you richard.

 

[Jake]

But the year isn't it, it's just the start.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

But the year isn't it, it's just the start.

True, of course. I've looked closely at some seventeenth and eighteenth century pieces that were originally highly decoratively and colourfully covered in marquetry, that by now are basically all over brown. It's hard to ascertain what is what regarding the multitude of wood species used, and it's only by carefully following the dark lines at veneer piece intersections that the depicted scene can be discerned. It's interesting to speculate just how vibrant and colourful the scenes might have been when the pieces were new three or four hundred years ago. Slainte.

 

[ED65]

how quickly after applying an oil finish will the pale timber turn to the yellow that it is famed to turn to- is it instant, weeks or longer? I wiped some tung oil over rippled sycamore last night, and it looked excellent- just how i wanted it. Will that change over time?

There are two stages of this, the initial colouring of the wood you get when the oil first goes on (overall darkening, an increase in contrast, i.e. pops the grain) and then some years down the line the oil itself discolours. The later colour change is usually described as "yellowing" but the colour is more ochre/sienna and not a proper yellow.

All drying and semi-drying oils do this to a degree. One of the reasons that tung is favoured so much these days is because its initial colour can be so much lighter than BLO's, but the catch is it will eventually turn a very similar colour to linseed. After about five to seven years they're practically indistinguishable; this has been documented by Flexner and is one of a couple of reasons he is not a fan of tung oil.