Finishing Maple

C

Cyborg13454

Joined
Aug 17, 2008
Messages
50
What should I use to finish maple to make it darker? And can you do anything to stabilized maple to make it darker?
 
Fiebings spirit based leather dye is probably the easiest way to do it.
 
I used some of my Burnt Umber (or whatever color you wish) artist oil paint for doing picture paintings and mixed it in with some hardware store variety Tung oil finish to get a nice thin mixture. It works really well as a stain medium.
 
R.C.Reichert said:
I used some of my Burnt Umber (or whatever color you wish) artist oil paint for doing picture paintings and mixed it in with some hardware store variety Tung oil finish to get a nice thin mixture. It works really well as a stain medium.
Click to expand...

Can you say how it holds up to use?

Mike
 
I have not experimented with using Aqua Fortis on stabilized maple (which I use a lot of), but can tell you that polishing and final sanding with just the right amount of pressure will darken the maple and highlight the features. I have had poor results with staining stabilized maple. The good thing is that most maple darkens a bit when it is stabilized.

I have to mix some Nitric acid up soon, I'll try some on stabilized maple and see what it does.

Stacy
 
bladsmth said:
I have to mix some Nitric acid up soon, I'll try some on stabilized maple and see what it does.
Stacy
Click to expand...

I'm not certain about polycyanoacrylate, but esters and strong oxidizers don't usually get along too well.
 
Mike Krall said:
There are as many ways to do it as there are folks doing it...

http://www.google.com/cse?cx=011197018607028182644%3Aqfobr3dlcra&ie=UTF-8&q=maple+stain&sa=Search

Or go here http://www.americanlongrifles.org/, register, search "stain" in both the regular forum and the archives. These people know about maple. It's a great site for a lot of techniques.

Mike
Click to expand...

Hi Mike,
Thanks for the link to americanlongrifles.org
Those guys seem like a bunch of good guys to know. I like the fact they make guns. Maybe they will let me in some of their circles.
 
I have used a solution of one teaspoon lye (caustic soda, sodium hydroxide) in a pint of water, brushed it on raw birdseye maple, and rinsed it off in cool tap water after a few seconds. It turned the wood a bit green, but really brought out the eyes and other grain. This effect held true after dying with black leather dye and finishing with a few coats of tung oil. It had that almost-spooky deep look to it.

Unfortunately, I've tried the same thing again and it didn't do much at all. So I don't know what I did wrong, yet. But I know it CAN work really well... *scratching my head* ...

On the other hand, Danish oil works every time, although not as dramatically.
 
Bruce Bump said:
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the link to americanlongrifles.org
Those guys seem like a bunch of good guys to know. I like the fact they make guns. Maybe they will let me in some of their circles.
Click to expand...

You are welcome, Bruce.

I haven't spent a huge amount of time at American Longrifles. It's a quiet place, seems to be a lot of serious rifle builders and, as I said, some great techniques. The tutorials sections in both the open and archived forum have some wonderful stuff in them.

I can't imagine they wouldn't be interested in your knife-pistol work.

Mike
 
Last edited:
James_Terrio said:
I have used a solution of one teaspoon lye (caustic soda, sodium hydroxide) in a pint of water, brushed it on raw birdseye maple, and rinsed it off in cool tap water after a few seconds. It turned the wood a bit green, but really brought out the eyes and other grain. This effect held true after dying with black leather dye and finishing with a few coats of tung oil. It had that almost-spooky deep look to it.

Unfortunately, I've tried the same thing again and it didn't do much at all. So I don't know what I did wrong, yet. But I know it CAN work really well
Click to expand...

James,

What little I've read about lye stains on the American Longrifles site leads me to believe woods will react differently. Like different pieces of maple stained with lye producing light brown, golden, and light yellow. Lye, like iron/vinegar, Aqua Fortis, and others are chemical stains. They cause a chemical reaction in the wood and usually it is a reaction with tannins... less or more tannins, less or more darkening. Some use strong tea (10+ bags in a quart of water) to both color and add tannin for following chemical staining.

Chuck Burrows, who posts here and on both KN and BS, knows an awful lot about these kinds of things.

Mike
 
Thanks to everyone who has helped. I have decided to go with boiled linseed oil. I'll be sure to post pictures after I'm done. It'll be a while though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top