Curly Maple Table

[Bryce Adams]

Here are a few pictures of a curly maple side table I made for my brother for Christmas. I really like this simple shaker design from an article in Fine Woodworking by Christian Becksvoort.

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Turns out it's not that easy to get a good picture of the curl, but these aren't too bad:

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There's a story behind the finish. I wanted to use a wiping varnish and highlight the curl, so I thought Arm-R-Seal Topcoat would be just the ticket. I didn't want to dye the piece, but I did want some darkening/yellowing from the oil based varnish. I've had good results with Arm-R-Seal before, but never used it on maple before.

The 1st coat of Arm-R-Seal killed the curl, and left the maple very light - not what I was looking for. So after 3 weeks of looking at it, I finally decided to strip the finish off and start over.

For my second attempt, I started with wiping on boiled linseed oil, and the figure jumped out of the wood. It was a dramatic improvement in highlighting the curl. I still wanted to darken the wood some, so after giving the BLO a week to dry, I wiped on 4 coats of Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish. Finally I rubbed it out with 4/0 steel wool and put on a coat of Liberon Black Bison Walnut paste wax. I don't think the wax adds any protection, but it sure gives the piece a silky smooth feel.

You know what people say about always trying out your finish on scrap wood before putting it on the real project? They're right. Although I like Arm-R-Seal on cherry and walnut, it was a poor idea to use it on curly maple without testing.

I'm happy with how the finish turned out, I just took the long way around to get there.

[David Falkner]

Very nice build and finish! Don't you just love Curly Maple - man, that's purty! Well done.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Very nice.

Just for future reference - I'm not sure how you go about building your table tops, but all of mine have a bottom side that will never be seen.

Thankfully they won't be seen - lotta patches of test finishes on there. THen, a couple-three coats of whatever the final finish material is, just to evenly finish both surfaces.

[Joseph Valsi]

Nice work ! I love those dovetails !!!

[Randy Red Bemont]

Very nicely done. I love working in the shaker style. The curly maple looks awesome and so do the dovetails.

Red

[Prashun Patel]

Beautiful. I too am more and more drawn to Shaker elegance (vs. simplicity): Shaker designs are so well engineered and really let the wood do the talking. ( blah, blah, blah. )

Anyway, I'm curious about your experience with ArmRSeal on maple. I do not find that to be the case at all. After you stripped the original finish, did you re-sand/plane the surface to the same level as before?

I tried the dye, then sand back technique several times. It works, but you cannot sand too high, or the dye will not absorb.

Now, when accentuating curl - and I mean trying to make it look 3-D, I like to sand up to 600 or even higher, then go straight to shellac or an oil-based varnish. I find this allows you to keep the finish very thin (at the expense of some protection?) while making the wood look 3d. You don't get any glare or reflection of light that you might have with a glossier, filmier finish.

All this is to say that while yr piece looks perfect, don't count your arm-r-seal out for maple. It's a right bit lighter than Waterlox and pure BLO, which can make a maple finish feel too orangey in some applications.

[Bryce Adams]

Prashun,

If I recall correctly, I originally sanded it to 320. I'm pretty sure I did the same after stripping the first finish off. I thought the oil based Arm-R-Seal would highlight the curl, but it really muted it. With one coat on, I had to look pretty hard to see any figure on the drawer front and the table top was very bland. Maybe more coats would have made a difference.

When I wiped on the BLO, the curl became very prominent. I'd stand in front of the piece, tilt my head from side to side and watch the figure completely change. At least on this wood, the oil made a significant difference in the final effect.

[Gordon Eyre]

Your project is beautiful Bryce. The design is simple yet very elegant and your choice of wood really adds to the overall look.

[Prashun Patel]

The thing is, ArmRSeal has oil in it and will have the same effect as the BLO. When you say the ArmRSeal muted the figure, was it muted immediately when wet or when that first coat dried?

How did you strip it from the surface? The first coat of most finishes will dry completely muted. I wonder if it is possible that despite stripping and re-sanding, the wood was still sealed enough from the ArmRSeal (i.e., it was not completely removed) such that the first coat of the BLO was not completely absorbed, which allowed it to keep the surface looking shiny.

[John TenEyck]

I agree with Prashun, Arm-R-Seal looks great on curly maple. This was 3 or 4 wiped on coats of semi-gloss:

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The first coat goes mostly into the wood so that might be why it looked muted to you. But by the 3rd coat it's beautiful. Try it again - on some scrap - the next time you are working on a curly maple project. It's much lighter than Waterlox and a very good choice when trying to get a lighter look.

That was all an aside - your table is gorgeous.

John

[Jim Becker]

Good stuff! Very beautiful.

[Brent Ring]

I have made some of these in Beech. They are fun - but your curly maple ones are awesome. Handcut dovetails on the drawers? They look great!

[Bryce Adams]

I really should do some more testing on finishing. I only put on one coat of Arm-R-seal and didn't like the result. Maybe another coat or two would have been just fine. To strip the 1st finish, I used a citrus stripper, scraped off the gunk, washed it with mineral spirits and then re-sanded. That got off all the visible finish, but may not have completely removed finish that had soaked into the wood.

My standby finish on cherry and walnut is garnet shellac. If a piece needs more protection, I'll add a few coats of wiping varnish, either Arm-R-Seal or Waterlox. This was the first piece I've made with any maple, let alone curly maple, so I didn't know what finish to use. I was running up against a deadline to get it done so I didn't take the time to test a few different things. Now would be a good time to grab a couple of scrap boards and do some experiments.

[Don Bullock]

Very nice!