I am building a box out of poplar. This is a test project for me. I am trying to enhance my dovetail and finishing abilities. To keep the end grain on the tails from soaking up stain more than the other wood I planed them down with a block plane until they were flush. I sanded the carcass with 220. I then applied hide glue sizing and let it dry over night and lightly sanded it all with 320. I applied the stain, Minwax cherry, and the tails came out 2-3 times darker than the rest of the wood. I have used sizing before and had good luck. Should I use a 1 lb cut of dewaxed shellac next time? Thank you
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It's a design choice to have exposed dovetails. I would tend to let them be visible. If I didn't want visible dovetails I would make blind or half blind dovetails.
Different boards react differently so its not really possible to set a general rule except always test finishes on scrap, not on the project.
You might also go with a dye instead of a pigmented stain since the dye generally shows less contrast between end and flat grain.
I tried a dye and it was even more evident.
I do a couple thing to keep end-grain from getting too dark. One is to use a polishing saw-blade (Freud LU-85) to cut it with, but similar effect can be accomplished by sanding the end grain to a much higher grit than the rest of the stock.
The other is to use a wash-coat of shellac to help seal off the end-grain. To prevent surprises like you had with this project, use a scrap piece (or 2 or 3) to test on.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Sealing the pores with cut shellac will help a lot, Also staining by very lightly padding on the stain with a very very dry pad of Gell stain. Or a very very dry bristle brush like you would use for stenceling or putting it on like make-up.
But to me the beauty of through dovetails or box joints is that very contrast.
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Bruce S.
I don't want the tails to disappear. I would like them to show a little darker. I am in hopes of giving it a go this weekend and see how things work out. I may be getting too anal about the whole deal but I thank everyone for their input.
Bonka
I was fighting this with some maple. I was using water-based dye. Came across a suggestion to wet the end grain first, which prevent the water w/ dye from penetrating as much. Took some testing and still some contrast, but better and easier than sanding to higher grit. Didn't see any unintended damage or other negative impact.
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