Glazing Mediums. . . A poser

[Jack Young]

I mistakenly posted this under Power Tools and Woodworking. Sorry. Let me try here, where it is appropriate.

I am refinishing two table leaves and have made three new ones. The originals are about a hundred years old, and were nearly black with age and whatever stain was used originally. The tops sanded out easily to fresh wood and appear to be Honduras mahogany. The three new leaves, carbon copies of the originals, I made of Honduras mahogany but about 15% lighter in color than the raw wood on the originals.

The process, to date, has been sanding to 220 grit, spraying water on, let it dry, sand again with 220 grit, then stain with waterborne TransTint Honey Amber, followed by a precise mix of TransTint Brown Mahogany and TransTint Reddish Brown suspended in Tried and True boiled linseed oil, rubbed on and let dry for a week. Then a coat of 1 lb. cut of clear shellac, lightly sanded. The original difference in color (visible in the raw wood) had followed through the staining process, as I expected. The older leaves are still about 15% darker.

I want to make up the difference in color intensity with a glaze using the same mix of TransTint colors used in the original linseed stain coat, but can't seem to find an oil based clear medium in which to mix the TransTint concentrate and which is also stiff enough to hold the stain uniformly. TransTint is, of course, water and alcohol soluble, but it suspended nicely in the linseed oil. I'm using Waterlox gloss finish and have one coat on now, and I prefer not to use any more linseed oil, unless there is no other choice. The stains do not mix well in the Waterlox and separate out quickly, even though Waterlox is tung oil based. A wipe-on/off glaze would allow sneaking up on a match, which I would prefer.

What about Bartley's clear wipe-on varnish as a medium? I can still find that, I think, and maybe it's stiff enough. Perhaps I'm missing something absurdly simple, and have been known to do that.

Anyone have suggestions. Any help will be appreciated.

Jack Young

[Jeff Jewitt]

The TransTint will suspend nicely in Bartley Clear Gel or General Finishes clear gel finish. The only problem is that these products set up pretty quickly. If necessary I add BLO to the mix to slow it down and make it behave it bit better.

[Jack Young]

Jeff-

Thanks a lot. I deem myself less insecure. I quit using Bartley exactly because of its tendency to set up too fast on large surfaces, leaving lap marks and the such. I found that Zar was a lot better and General appears to be about the same in work time as Zar. I work at Woodcraft a night or so a week and the gurus there weren't much help, as you have been. Woodcraft doesn't sell Bartley's stuff any more, but Fisher's Hardware, further along the storefront, a walk about long enough to light my pipe, does. We do handle General products and the clear gel is a wiping polyurethane, or so it claims. I wanted to stay away from polyurethane on this project. But I am very impressed with the General products I have tried thus far.

I might try the extender, or whatever it's called. But each leaf is about 10 1/2" wide and 55" long, which maybe isn't too big for straight Bartley if I slathe it on fairly thick. One coat of glaze will probably do it, as my experiment with the tinted Waterlox on a scrap piece of wood suggests. The scrap had been through the process with stain and shellac sealer on it, and the makeshift glaze on just the sealer was a tad blotchy.

Again, thanks.

Jack