Need some help with maple

[Philip Johnson]

This is in no way a piece of fine furniture. I made a simple shelf for the daughter for her to store some of her paper for scrap books. It is made of baltic birch ply and has about 18 shelves. I decided to dress it up a bit and put a maple top on it and base and some trim. I have already stained all the shelves with a dark cherry gel stain and now I find out that maple does not take stain very well. Is there any way to get the maple to take the stain or should I try a dye, I have never tried a dye but read on here that it works better then stain on maple. This doesn't have to be anything fancy just want the maple to end up a nice dark rich color like the birch took the stain,

thanks
Phil

[Phil Phelps]

Phil, you've already used a cherry stain. Alhtough it didn't work well for you, if you use a darker stain you will be going "over" what you have and it will be different from what you expect. Is the maple a veneer?
A dye should strike in better than the gel stain. Practice on some scrap.

[Philip Johnson]

I have used the gel stain on the baltic birch but not the maple trim. I tried the gel on a scrap with terrible results. So I came here and found out that maple does not take stain well. I have to run over to woodcraft or rockler and will see what they have for dyes.

[Dave Gaul]

Phil,

I have only recently started working with maple. Before knowing any better, and not wanting to experiment with new/correct techinques, I needed to stain some maple very dark, black in fact! I did read some about how maple blotches easily, and I used Minwax's "Pre-Stain Conditioner" before applying Minwax's "New Black" Polyshades. I'm sure people are cringing as they read this, but it worked, as I had a deadline (Christmas). I did not notice any blotching at all on the maple, the polyshade (disclaimer.. hate the stuff, but it was what worked at the time for the project & deadline!) went on very nicely & evenly. If you aren't looking for the "BEST" method, or just need a quick one, this may work for your project...

[Prashun Patel]

What do you mean by 'terrible results'?

If the prob is blotchiness, then you can improve results by wash coating the piece in a 0.5-1# cut of shellac (try Zinsser Sealcoat) followed by your pigment stain.

Alternate approaches are to use an aniline dye (but this will require some mixing and matching to get the color right; but you'll improve the blotch problem) and using a gel stain as a toner (which you can put on in between top coats in thin layers, selectively 'painting' the problem areas and blending them into the others.)

Another trick I found is to use a black gel stain as an antique glaze. After you stain everything with your primary color, let it dry well, then stain it with the black gel. Wipe it on and off fairly quickly. It gave a mirror I made this Xmas a Mission type of antiquing. Of course, this works BEST with opengrained woods like oak...

[Chris Padilla]

Buy, beg, borrow a copy of Bob Flexner's Understanding Wood Finishing. I think EVERYONE should have this TOOL in their shop!

[Philip Johnson]

Chris I will have to look for that book it was recommended by the lady in Rockler too. At any rate she was very helpful and opened a half dozen different stains and dyes and tried em on some maple. She came up with a water based dye with my gel stain on top and it looks like it is going to be an almost perfect match. So thanks for pointing me in the right direction with the dye. I gotta quit buying tools and make something that is worth putting a nice finish on. I see I have a lot to lean about finishing.

Phil