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Thread: What finish for a hard maple and curly maple dresser?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Loveland, Colorado
    Posts
    164

    What finish for a hard maple and curly maple dresser?

    Hi everyone,

    I'm working on two pieces of furniture for my baby boy's room who will be arriving in a few months. One is a dresser that will act as the changing table. The other is a tall book case. For the dresser, the carcass will be made of hard maple, and the drawer fronts will be made of curly maple. For the book case, everything will be hard maple, but the front edges of the shelves will be curly maple.

    I built two end tables a while back and used Minwax Polyshades because it was the only thing that wouldn't blotch (or so I thought at the time). I hated the stuff and don't want to go back. For these pieces, I would like the hard maple parts to be a somewhat medium dark color. I want the curly maple to really contrast and be a more natural color, while it's grain pops.

    Can anyone help me with a finishing method for the two types of wood? I don't have a spraying system. I hear a lot about BLO and such, but I don't know what that is. Any help would be much appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Tim

  2. #2
    Tim,
    I am a real fan of using BLO (Boiled linseed Oil). It will realy cause the grain to pop espesialy the curley maple. I also am a big fan of using wipe on poly. It goes on nice and takes care of the problems associated with brush on finishes. When I made My maloof style table out of Maple I used Maloof finish which is a combination of 1/3 pure tonge oil, 1/3 BLO and 1/3 Wipe on poly. If you don't want to go to the trouble of getting the Maloof finish you could make you own using BLO and wipe on poly. It may not be dark enough for you so try it on a test piece first.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Mt. Pleasant, MI
    Posts
    2,924
    BLO won't protect the wood just "pop" the grain. You still need a finish over it.

    I am a huge fan on waterlox for a wipe on finish. It can also be put on with a foam brush to speed the building process. It is a tung oil based varnish and looks very nice when done. Plenty durable without the "plastic" look you can sometimes get from urethane based finsihes.

    If you want to stain the maple then spray a coat of #1 dewaxed shellac, then sand back and stain. The sealcoat will help with the blotching or the easiest is to order some transtint or other dye and use it instead.

    The are lots of internet suppliers available that carry dyes.

    Good luck

    Joe
    JC Custom WoodWorks

    For best results, try not to do anything stupid.

    "So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause." - Padmé Amidala "Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith"

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Granbury, TX
    Posts
    1,458
    BLO first, then Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish.
    Martin, Granbury, TX
    Student of the Shaker style

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Shoreline, CT
    Posts
    2,923
    I agree with the use of dye on the hard maple. Thats about the only way to get a medium dark color without just heavily painting the surface with a pigmented gel stain or the like. An analine dye, mixed with distilled water, can be adjusted to reach whatever darkness you want.

    Then, for the curly maple, take the same colored dye, dilute it quite a bit and dye the curly maple. THEN, sand the curly maple, taking care to do so evenly. What will happen is the dye will have penetrated more deeply into the curly figure, and less in between. The sanding removes dye layer on the "in-between" maple but gives a good contrast to the figure. The dye also pulls the colors of the too maples together but since it is mixed more dilutely still gives an attractive contrast. You can still use a coat of BLO after the dye and before top coating, but if you use a top coat with an amber cast, such as Waterlox (Original/Sealer, or Satin or Gloss), or Behlen's Rockhard you will get much the same effect. Any of these traditional resin varnishes will provide ample protection.

    Don't use poly. You don't need its, forte abrasion resistence, and its water or chemical protection is so little more than a traditional resin varnish as to be essentially meaningless in furniture applications. Save poly for floors, where it makes good sense.
    Last edited by Steve Schoene; 04-05-2006 at 8:19 PM.

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