Music Stand--questions about gluiing and finishing

[Joe Mindell]

Hi guys,
I'm finishing the construction of a music stand (a wedding present for my brother and his wife). Pictures of the current stage are attached, It's kind of a blend of shaker and modern, centered around a beautiful piece of mahogany for the music support.

As you can see from the picture, I have some nice ebony trim that is (temporarily for now) attached. Because the mahogany parts are such different colors, I'm planning to stain them with an aniline dye to even out the tones and get a (hopefully) rich brown color. But I don't want to stain the ebony. Can I glue the ebony after staining? Will the stain interfere with the glue adhering? Also, do I need to do any special prep to get glue to stick to ebony?

Thanks

[Jim W. White]

WOW ...that's drop dead beautiful!!

Are you really sure it needs any stain at all? ...I think the contrast in the parts (if any) is driven as much by: 1.) the horizontal and vertical components 2.) as well as the figure than anything else ...and I find it very appealling the way it is.

If your going to stain, though, I would definately glue up the ebony first and then just tape it off with some blue painters tape. I have no direct experience with ebony; but I beleive there is some prep required in order to deal with the "oilyness" of the wood. I'm sure someone else will chime in but I think you wipe it down with alchohol first.

[Roger Barga]

I agree, it is beautiful. imho, the subtle contrast between the different pieces of mahogany is actually a nice element. Over time, however, I expect the difference will be less noticeable anyway.

Again, very nice work!

roger

[mike holden]

Joe,
Try a water based dye like the transfast dyes. I have found that gluing after dying is not a problem. You could also glue and mask the ebony, then dye or stain.
Mike

[Jim Newman]

Joe, I need to make 2 music stands for my kids. Do you have a plan? I live about an hour from you north of Baltimore, but am down your way once a month. Any help is appreciated. Wow, what a stunning work of art!!!

Jim

[Joe Mindell]

Thanks for all the positive feedback. I agree that the grain is really nice, but I'd like to even out the tone a bit. My impression is that a dye like a transfast could actually enhance the grain, which is what I'm after. As soon as I get the last few things done on the construction, I'll start doing test finishes on scraps to see what works.

Jim, I'd be happy to share what I've figured out. As you probably know, there seem to be almost no plans for music stands on the web; what I've found never suited my taste. The direct inspiration for this was a beautiful piece on the Fine Woodworking website (by Tim Swanberg) with some absolutely STUNNING marquetry. I couln't replicate the marquetry so I found a piece of mahogany that did the hard work for me. The base is inspired by Chris Becksvoorts's shaker round stands, and I combined his and Mario Rodruigez's methods from FWW articles to make the stand.

[Joe Mindell]

Oh, and Jim, I have a few drawings and some templates for the curved parts. I'd be happy to get the drawings to you and you're welcome to borrow the templates if they'd be useful to you. (Although they're a bit haphazard!!).
J