How to age maple?

[John TenEyck]

I'm having a bit of an issue with a customer who wants the hard maple and mahogany I used to have a more golden glow, with less contrast between the two woods. The table is essentially built, so whatever I do has to be done on both woods unless I do some very careful masking which I'd really like to avoid for obvious reasons.

Does anyone know how to give maple that aged yellow look? I'm hoping for some sort of chemical process that effects maple but not mahogany. Long shot, I know. I'm open to any approach, actually. I'm well versed in using dyes and stains, too, but that's not a good option unless I mask off the mahogany to do it.

Does UV light age maple? Seems like it would.

Any help, direction, etc. appreciated.

John

[Jamie Buxton]

To my eye, the ambering of oil-based varnish has a big effect on maple, but not as much on dark woods like mahogany. Sure, it does change mahogany, but to me not as noticeably as maple.

[John TenEyck]

That's right, Jamie, and that's one avenue I'm looking at. What I've tried, however, is not reducing the contrast between the maple and mahogany enough. Any idea who's varnish has the most amber hue? Arm-R-Seal is very pale. True Value's is pretty amber and has a much more pronounced (beneficial) effect. I've never used Waterlox so I don't know how dark it is.

Amber shellac has a similar effect, but less than varnish.

Thanks,

John

[Ben Ellenberger]

I got some garnet shellac flakes that mixed up to a dark, aged look. I don’t particularly care for it, but it might be what you are looking for.

I’ve only used blonde shellac before, so I’m not sure how big of a contrast that garnet has compared to amber.

[John TenEyck]

That's the best approach I've found so far. I've made a lot of samples using amber shellac, with and without the addition of one or the other Transtint dye to it. The best combination so far has been the addition of Dark Vintage Maple or Brown Mahogany, and then the OB varnish topcoat. The Dark Vintage Maple dye gives an amber look, while the Brown Mahogany gives it more of a reddish tone. Actually, that one gives the least contrast between the maple and mahogany, though it does not meet the golden glow definition.

John

[Prashun Patel]

John, which OB varnish are you using?

My initial instinct is to use Waterlox. It's on the darker side of the OB varnishes.

Or, dying with Amber Additive Transtint followed by your OB varnish?

[John TenEyck]

John, which OB varnish are you using?

My initial instinct is to use Waterlox. It's on the darker side of the OB varnishes.

Or, dying with Amber Additive Transtint followed by your OB varnish?

The darkest varnish I have is actually from True Value. The maple drawer fronts on the armoire Ron talked about above were done with Waterlox and looked much too light. Do you have any maple you've done with Waterlox?

The specimen I made with Honey Amber Transtint produced a very bright yellow. I'll evaluate it again with a much lower concentration. It looked great on the mahogany though. Anything with a yellow or orange tint looks really good on the mahogany.

Thanks.

John

[Prashun Patel]

Waterlox. I did this yesterday. YMMV.



IMG_9185.jpg

[John TenEyck]

Thanks for doing that, Prashun. Is that mahogany or Sapele? The maple looks just about right. And which Waterlox did you use, OSF, or? FYI, I need a satin sheen, too, and I'd rather not have to run it out to get there.

What a wonderful thing it would be to use nothing more than a wipe on varnish. Arm-R-Seal alone looks nothing like that, practically no change in color.

I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.

John

[Prashun Patel]

That's "Honduran" mahogany or so I was told when sold. It is definitely not sapelle.

I used Waterlox Original Sealer Finish (Original formulation).

Are you building a film? OSF tends to settle from gloss at application to semi-gloss at cure.

Also, as I know you know, if you don't build film with this, it will be satin. You could seal with it, high grit sand, then final polishing coat.

[John TenEyck]

That's "Honduran" mahogany or so I was told when sold. It is definitely not sapelle.

I used Waterlox Original Sealer Finish (Original formulation).

Are you building a film? OSF tends to settle from gloss at application to semi-gloss at cure.

Also, as I know you know, if you don't build film with this, it will be satin. You could seal with it, high grit sand, then final polishing coat.

Thanks Prashun. From my reading Honduran mahogany was grown in Honduras. It's no longer exported so you either got stuff still in the pipeline, of someone sold you Genuine mahogany and called it Honduran. The good news is Genuine mahogany is the same stuff but came from one of the adjacent countries where it grows. That's what I'm using for my table.

OK, back to Waterlox. There is Waterlox Original High Gloss Finish, Waterlox Original Satin Finish, and Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish. From the literature, the Sealer/Finish can be used on its own, or as a sealer and then topcoated with the High Gloss or Satin Finish.

You're using the Original Sealer/Finish. How do you typically use it? I'm not the high grit sanding type. 325 is about as high as I ever go. I'm a complete newbie about Waterlox.

Thanks,

John

[Ron Citerone]

That's right, Jamie, and that's one avenue I'm looking at. What I've tried, however, is not reducing the contrast between the maple and mahogany enough. Any idea who's varnish has the most amber hue? Arm-R-Seal is very pale. True Value's is pretty amber and has a much more pronounced (beneficial) effect. I've never used Waterlox so I don't know how dark it is.

Amber shellac has a similar effect, but less than varnish.

Thanks,

John

The jewelry armoire I just posted in the project forum has Waterlox on it if you want an idea.

[Christian Hawkshaw]

What about boiled linseed oil?

[John TenEyck]

I hate BLO. But I did try tung oil and it doesn't give enough color change so I suspect BLO alone won't either. I also tried the 1/3 varnish, 1/3 tung oil, and 1/3 mineral spirits approach. Looks great, but far too light.

John

[Rob Luter]

I know this will sound silly......

I made a dovetail box for the hearth several years ago. We use it to store pine cones for fire starting. It's soft maple with some misc spalting and mineral streaks and I wanted an "Antique" look. I had a Mason jar full of mineral spirits that I had used to clean a stain brush. The spirits were a amberish/brownish color as a result. Basically a VERY diluted stain. I wetted a rag and gave the whole box a good rubdown. Once dry I applied shellac. It looks like a vintage piece. Original thread with crappy photos here: https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....ight=Maple+Box