Finishing Suggestions

[Kevin Smira]

I have nearly completed a dining room table for my daughter. I am now looking for finish suggestions. The top is 36x72 and nearly 1" thick. It's made of sapele. There are 4 boards that make up the glue up panel. Two are the typical "ribbon" grain you see in sapele, while the other two have some cathedral running along the outside edge. The base is made of alder. The daughter is thinking of painting the alder (not sure why you'd paint, but whatever)...the wife is thinking of staining the sapele. I told her that stain would "ruin" it and not allow the natural sapele to show. So, I'm thinking of an oil based finish and then something like armor seal on top of that? Or, should I be thinking shellac? I'm fairly new to all this and am open to any suggestions.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Rob Young]

I have nearly completed a dining room table for my daughter. I am now looking for finish suggestions. The top is 36x72 and nearly 1" thick. It's made of sapele. There are 4 boards that make up the glue up panel. Two are the typical "ribbon" grain you see in sapele, while the other two have some cathedral running along the outside edge. The base is made of alder. The daughter is thinking of painting the alder (not sure why you'd paint, but whatever)...the wife is thinking of staining the sapele. I told her that stain would "ruin" it and not allow the natural sapele to show. So, I'm thinking of an oil based finish and then something like armor seal on top of that? Or, should I be thinking shellac? I'm fairly new to all this and am open to any suggestions.

Thanks,
Kevin

1) In the future, finishing schedule should be part of the project planning stage, not an afterthought.

2) You can carefully brush/pad/spray a thinned shellac to help control the stain. Selection of stain type will have an effect. Likewise for a dye (a better way to alter color and still see the grain & characteristics come through).

3) While shellac is a great finish for a table, it probably doesn't have the durability as the final top coat for "modern living". It can be used below other finishes as a method of sealing down color coats, grain fill materials (especially if they have been dyed), etc.

4) Sapelle has a rather open grain and you may want to consider doing some grain filling on the table top. Doesn't have to be a 100% grain fill, can be partial. And can be done as part of applying the oil-varnish blend by doing a wetsand to form slurry which gets worked down into the pores.

5) A wipe on such as armor seal would be OK as a table top finish but consider multiple coats and how long it takes to cure before use.

6) Test finishing schedule on scraps left over from build. All steps, in order and with proper drying time between. This goes back to #1 where one plans out the schedule and does it parallel to the build so as to not hold up the process as the end.

In other words, no single, simple, one-size-fits-all answer is possible.

[Alan Lightstone]

I build a lot of furniture out of sapele, and have always thought that Waterlox looked the best on it. I prefer that to lacquer, which I use for most of my pieces since I can spray it here.

[Bennett Ostroff]

Sapele looks great with an oil-based finish, imo. You could use wipe-on poly or another oil-based wiping varnish like Waterlox or arm-r-seal. It might accentuate the grain a little more if you first use an oil/varnish blend. The coloring might come out more evenly too. Antique oil is my favorite but you can also just use boiled linseed oil. Wipe the excess off throughly. Wait a day or two and then spray a thin coat of shellac, then proceed with a few coats wiping varnish.

Shellac then wiping varnish is another option. Do some samples and see if you like the look with oil or shellac better. I bet they look pretty similar.

[Sam Murdoch]

Kevin, here is a thread with my thoughts on an tremendous oil finish. Your Sapele would look great. Too long to repeat so I just include the link for your review - http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...n-Table-Finish