How to age maple?

[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

[Prashun Patel]

Waterlox Original Sealer Finish (make sure you get "Original Formula" not "VOC formula") is can be applied exactly as you do your ArmRSeal. It's just a wiping phenolic varnish. High Gloss Finish and Satin Finish are higher solids full strength varnishes. Also - and this is critical for you - for some reason those two latter products are much lighter in color than the Original Sealer Finish.

I use the OSF as a top coat all the time as a sealer (under Target WB finishes for color) or as the top coat for other things.

It's about as durable as ArmRSeal.

I sand to 400-600, then flood on a couple coats, then sand w 600 and maybe even 1000. Then I wipe on maybe 2 final coats.

But you can use whatever normal wipe-on varnish regimen you like. It can be brushed on (if you prefer bulletproof), or wiped on/wiped off "in-the-wood".

It won't be rocket science for you.

I should also note that this product is pretty durable. I have it on a shower bench that is about 6 years old. Still going strong.

Also, note that Waterlox has a stronger odor out of the can than most other products I've used.

You mentioned you use a varnish from True Value. I wonder if it's the same private label brand that I once got from Ace Hardware, which was also a phenolic resin varnish and looked/applied much like Waterlox.

[John TenEyck]

Funny, the can of varnish I have actually is from Ace Hardware and it's pretty dark. After seeing the photo you took of Waterlox OSF earlier, I went and got the sample I had applied one coat of the Ace varnish to, and then applied another. Here's what it looks like. It's gloss, but the table will get a satin finish.





And the samples you prepared, for comparison:



The Waterlox looks a lot darker on the mahogany, but it wasn't sanded and is quite a bit darker than the wood I used. It's darker on the maple, for sure, especially if you only used one coat. So, I'll get some and try it, both by itself and over the NGR dye in Andrew's post.

Thanks very much for your continued help, Prashun.

John

[Stan Calow]

Interesting discussion. I've bought Honduran Mahogany in the last several years from this place:https://greenerlumber.com Sinker logs to be precise.

Regarding UV darkening, anyone ever used tanning beds was a practical option for faster results?