I gave up on trying to find the search function for the forum so i’ll just post this.
i’m making a jewelry box for my wife out of mahogany. The top is a curly maple venered panel. The mahogany is fairly light and she would like it to be darker. i plan on putting in some keys at the mitered corners and the keys would be out of maple. I ran a test peice last night and finished it quickly with BLO. (used BLO to make the curly figure on the panel pop) The contrast between the maple keys and the mahogany isn’t quite as dramatic as i was shooting for.
I don’t work with mahogany very often so i don’t know if it will darken over time. (It’s “Genuine mahogany”)
I haven’t cut the slots for the keys yet so i have some options.
the ideas i’m kicking around in my head are the following:
1) Swith the keys to Holly to make the color difference a little more dramatic.
2) stain the mahogany first and then cut the slots for the keys. (Probelm is that i still need to sand the keys flush after they are glued in)
3) Switch the finish from BLO to something else.
4) accept that this isn’t going to come out exactly as i have envisioned but will still probably make my wife happy. 🙂
Thanks for the help.
Mike in MI
Replies
Just a suggestion - maybe a light overall staining with a yellow color first - to highlight the maple - then a finish topcoat - and of course you will need lots of jewelry to fill up the box before giving it to the Mrs.
SA
Since Mahogany, like cherry, is photo-sensitive; giving it some sun baths will help darken it. Try a test scrap with various finishes, and put it in the sun. I would definitely use BLO as a first coat.
Also, you can add dye and/or stain if you protect the maple first with a careful coat of shellac. Norm showed this on the show on the nested tables. Break out the artist's brushes!
Hope this helps.
Chris
Ckenney,
Thanks for the tip. I'll try putting my test piece out inthe sun tomorrow and see if that has enough effect. Do i need sun or just daylight? the sun is not very plentiful this time of the year in Michigan.
Thanks,
Mike
You can darken (and redden) the mahohgany with slaked lime, or you could even use potassium dichromate to darken the mahogay, bearing in mind that the dichromate is poisonous, calling for serious precautions in use. Both of those chemical processes work in conjuctin with the tannin in the wood--mahogany has plenty, maple only a little.
Steve,
The slaked lime has me interested as an option. Where would i buy it and what is the application technique? Where would it fit in the finishing schedule?
Does it matter whether i use Hard maple or soft maple for the keys?
Thanks,
Mike
Mike,
Rob Millard, who used to contribure here on occasion, has an excellent writeup on his blog about how to use lime to color mahogany with inlays. http://rlmillard.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/05/index.html I have not tried it but I have tried several of his other tips and recommendations with great success.
Hope that helps.
Chris
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