Stickley-like finishes: how to do with waterborne products?

[Gene Davis]

I've got some projects to finish and want the Stickley "Onandaga" treatment on white oak.

Have done it using Jeff Jewitt's recommended method but three solvent-borne products are used. General Finishes Seal-a-Cel, their gel stain, and their excellent oil-poly clearcoat Arm-r-Seal.

How can I get the same look and be solvent-free?

[Jim Becker]

'Just looks like fumed oak to me in the pictures I pulled up via Google...so you could do the ammonia fuming and then finish with water borne or use dye/stain to approximate the color, seal and then use water borne to top coat.

[John TenEyck]

I've done the same as you following Jeff's process with the solvent based products, and they do look great. For a (mostly WB) finish I'm pretty sure I could create the Onandaga finish by dying the piece, then shooting a coat of Sealcoat shellac or a WB sealer. A WB stain could be used in place of the gel stain for purposes of getting pigment into the pores, but I'd still use the solvent based gel stain because it's easy to use. Anyway, after that I'd shoot another sealer coat and then a toner coat of my WB topcoat with Transtint dye to give the tint of Arm-R-Seal, then follow that with one or two finish coats.

John

[Kent A Bathurst]

I've done the same as you following Jeff's process with the solvent based products, and they do look great. For a (mostly WB) finish I'm pretty sure I could create the Onandaga finish by dying the piece, then shooting a coat of Sealcoat shellac or a WB sealer. A WB stain could be used in place of the gel stain for purposes of getting pigment into the pores, but I'd still use the solvent based gel stain because it's easy to use. Anyway, after that I'd shoot another sealer coat and then a toner coat of my WB topcoat with Transtint dye to give the tint of Arm-R-Seal, then follow that with one or two finish coats.

John

Majority of my stuff is Stickley-ish, but don't use WB.

I think J-10 has it nailed exactly. The oil-based gel stain bit is dead-nuts easy, and it takes a very small amount - slop a glob on, and rub it in with a clean cotton rag - keep moving, because a thin coat sets up quickly. I have one "wet" cloth in my right hand, and a dry cloth in my left - rubbing circular, but always cross-grain.

I always put down shellac seal coats between each color coat - but I use padding cloth to apply.

My usual rant: The liquid Transtint in water will "lift" if you apply the seal coat by hand - hence John's correct recommendation of spray shellac. However, the powder Transfast with water has very little lift - and that is what I switched to a number of years ago.