Im making an oak table for a colleague of mine. She likes a dark walnut like finish, but also wants to be able to see all the nice medullary rays in a lighter shade.
How do I do that ?
Printable View
Im making an oak table for a colleague of mine. She likes a dark walnut like finish, but also wants to be able to see all the nice medullary rays in a lighter shade.
How do I do that ?
first off, be sure to use the right oak. The rays (or flakes) are more prominant in white oak, and particularly in quartersawn. Pigment only stain will have less impact on the flecks. while dye will cover more uniformly. It will take a fair amount of test staining to get it right.
Go to the link and click on the Mission Finish Guide. Sample 3 may be what you are looking for. I've used those recipes; they work very well and can be done w/o spray equipment.
http://homesteadfinishingproducts.co...-pdf-document/
John
After watching that YouTube, I contacted Jeff Jewitt with the same question. Here is his answer:
“My experience is that contrast is more depending on the way the wood is sawn originally, the type of oak (old growth vs new). However if you want to experiment I have heard of folks using a Q tip moistened with mineral spirits to remove the stain from the hard rays before the send stain sets. You might also try juts eliminating the second stain...”
I performed a few experiments. One was using a lighter shade of dye instead of old maple. I also discovered that JE Moses (Woodworker’s Supply) have a “fumed” dye in powder form.
Lasse, my experience is that dye stain will provide the clarity and highlighting you need. Pigment stains are not as transparent and hide the grain to some extent. Toning lacquers hide even more.
Surface texture is also important. You will need to sand the surface to about 320 grit. This will slightly glaze the harder rays which stops the stain penetrating too deeply into them while allowing more penetration into the surrounding timber.
As always with one off jobs like this, prepare an offcut to the same standard as the top and test your colour and coating system. Also, check out the current thread on applying dye stain and avoiding spotting. Cheers
My experience is the opposite for quartersawn oak. Pigment, which consists of discrete particles, doesn't penetrate well into the dense wood of the flakes. Thus, when you wipe off excess stain much pigment is removed from the flakes. Dye on the other hand provides color at the molecular level. Dye molecules as small enough that the can penetrate better into the wood of the flakes with the consequence of makeing flakes be less visually distinct.
Does sanding with a fine grit decrease penetration of stain into the rays?
Sanding, gentlely, with fine grit AFTER the stain will remove more stain from the flake than the "background". I'd test on a reasonably sized piece before committing to this on the project.
I agree with both of Steve's posts above. This is the look you get with Jeff's approach. I used a different dye recipe from any of his, but followed his sequence using the same products listed in his article. I did not sand after the dye step. As Steve said, the pigment stain that follows the Seal-A-Cell sealer goes in the pores, not on the rays.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/o9...f=w838-h628-no
John