How to age maple?

[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