I am building a chest of drawers using maple veneered plywood for the top and sides trimmed with solid maple. The veneer is thin and is almost showing the underlying layer in some places due to oversanding. I want to stain the wood to a dark- antique cherry. I am considering using a first coat of water based dye followed by Bartley’s gel stain of Pennsylvania cherry followed by a few coats of oil/urethane mix. Is this a good approach? Will waterbased dyes cause problems in thin veneer or should I use a boiled linseed oil/dye mix for the first coat? Any other suggestions?
– Lyptus
Replies
Initial water-based dye will not cause any problems. The veneer has already been pre-bonded at the factory and is holding fine. After it's dry, you can apply gel or other stain or b.l.o. or whichever you prefer.
But to cover your mistake, I'd use oil-based stains like minwax, perhaps mixing a couple different ones to get the right color on scrap first. With an error like oversanding, darker stain is better.
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