Needs some suggestions

[John Gregory]

We are using Lyptus for the first time. We are building a dresser for one of our grandsons. The color he would like would be like mahogany but more towards the brown side but dark like mahogany. My wife and I are very limited in our finishing skills. Any suggestions would be appreciated. If you have finished Lyptus I would like to hear about your experiences and suggestions.

Thanks
John

[Jim Becker]

I have not worked with this species, but I generally prefer water soluable dyes to provide coloration for most species I work with. I do know that Lyptus takes color well based on what I have read. Mahogany and walnut tones should be easy to acheive.

[Steve Jenkins]

I was making some samples on mahogany,they wanted a warm brown tone, and the pettiest brown I came up with was by mnixing GREEN dye with BLO and wiping it on. The green neutralizes the red. You just have to play with the amount of green you put in the oil.

[John Keane]

I have not worked with Lyptus, but understand that it is a wonderful wood and a renewable resource. I recently finished a dresser using General Finishes Brown Mahogany (water based). They also have it as an oil based Gel. The finished color was brownish and warm. Good luck.

[Bob Nieman]

There are a few posts on this subject in the archives:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=19542

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=19549

I posted pictures to both threads. I used a Min Wax Red Mahogany stain with shellac overcoats and was very happy with the result. I was trying to keep the reddish cast rather than hide it. The pictures don't show the salmon color that is present. I wasn't sure that I liked it at first, but I do know. I can't really compare it to other woods, having only tried this and some challenging maple and birch, but the experience wasn't that bad and I would sure like some more lyptus but it isn't available locally.