Replies

1. 
   SteveSchoene | May 02, 2006 03:52am | #1

   Of the three choices given, shellac would be nicest in my opinion.  Many hutches get quite a bit of abuse, if that's likely here shellac is vulnerable, but also easy to repair.  You you want a more protective finish, choose a traditional resin varnish, not polyurethane, which is more suited to floors.  Behlen's Rockhard is great, but would provide a fair amount of ambering to maple, and effect I like, but not everyone does.  For a lighter varnish Pratt & Lampert 38 is excellent. 

   
   

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   Edited 5/2/2006 6:19 am ET by SteveSchoene

1. 
   WillGeorge | May 03, 2006 05:55pm | #5

   shellac is vulnerable, (Or a Danish Oil) but also easy to repair..I totally agree.. BUT you have to be willing to sand off and refinish.. OK the next day!

1. 
   SteveSchoene | May 03, 2006 08:18pm | #8

   The joy of shellac is that most of the time you do not need to sand off and refinish.  Ordinary dings and scrapes can be touched up in 15 minutes since new shellac bonds well to old shellac with no sanding at all. 

   Edited 5/3/2006 4:59 pm ET by SteveSchoene

2. 
   gb93433 | May 02, 2006 05:55pm | #2

   Typically, I would use oil finishes on darker woods and clear finishes on light colored woods.

   Oil finishes will bring out some of the darker colors in the maple such as the green colors.

1. 
   BG | May 03, 2006 01:13pm | #4

   gb,

   It's interesting you mention the green in the maple. Last night I applied some garnet shellac (wash coat) to the drawer on an end table for my daughter. I couldn't believe how ugly tht drawer looks. Not only does it look green but it appears I never planed, scraped or sanded to 220 either...wild swirls of raised grain....feels smooth like baby bottom. I figured things will look better in the morning... 

1. 
   gb93433 | May 04, 2006 05:03am | #11

   With maple I use blond shellac flakes to make shellac polish.

3. 
   mike4244 | May 03, 2006 12:52pm | #3

   I agree with Steve, shellac is a great finish.You can use dewaxed shellac in a variety of colors, garnet,orange,blonde etc. With the exception of blonde which is a clear finish, the other shellacs can be made darker by adding more coats. Shellac can be tinted with alcohol dyes if needed. Use dewaxed shellac, then if you like you can apply a wiping varnish over it for more protection. I would not bother with the varnish, the hutch will not need the protection a table would need.

   mike

4. 
   forestgirl | May 03, 2006 07:11pm | #6

   Matt, I hope you saved some stock for finishing "practice runs."  My first maple finishing experience was pretty frustrating, and I was ever so glad I didn't make those mistakes on the actual workpiece.

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 
   

1. 
   user-147660 | May 03, 2006 07:36pm | #7

   Yes, and I plan to do a few test runs, although this will thoroughly piss-off my wife.  She wants the hutch done and in use yesterday.  To cut the test time down, what mistakes did you make, that I might avoid them?

   Thanks!

1. 
   forestgirl | May 04, 2006 03:23am | #9

   Hi Matt, hmmmmm, your wife and my husband.  He never has the patience to wait for me to "do it right."

   Well, not sure my mistakes will elucidate anything.  The maple I used was not "hard maple" but it did have a little bit of figure in it.  I tried to do a tung oil finish (real tung oil, not the canned stuff that actually has no tung oil in it) without using a wash coat of shellac.  I got blotching despite my best sanding efforts.  Also, there might have been some weeping out of the pores in very tiny but conspicuous amounts.  I've finished with Watco and learned how to manage the weeping on red oak, but this maple really caught me by surprise.  If you use any kind of oil finish, be sure the ambient temp is high enough that you don't get any surprises when you take the piece into the house.

   Also, I tried Jeff Jewitt's technique of using Naptha instead of mineral spirits to cut varnish with.  Never did get the hang of it.  Turns out (upon reading his newest book) that he developed this technique in order to cope with a situation where he needed super-fast-drying stuff.  He can have it, at this point ;-)

   The other thing I didn't do that I should have was experiment with some dyes.  The piece ended up looking very bland and pale.

   If this info helps, great.  If not, don't say I didn't warn you, LOL.  Truly, though, best of luck with the project!!!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 

2. 
   forestgirl | May 04, 2006 03:26am | #10

   PS:  To help with your wife (maybe), add up the number of hours you've already spent on the project.  Point out to her that those hours will be virtually wasted if you put a finish on the hutch that turns out to be disasterous.  I can't begin to tell her how many horror stories have appeared at Knots and other forums from people who pretty much ruined a project by not trying the finish out on scrap first.

   Tip #2:  Don't ever let her watch Norm the "huge project in an hour" guy, ROFL.

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 

   Edited 5/3/2006 8:27 pm by forestgirl

5. 
   hdgis1 | May 05, 2006 08:08am | #12

   I agree with regards to the versatility of shellac, however, unless you get flakes of superblonde (read bleached) you are going to add color to the maple. Their was an article in FWW sometiem recently that talked about clear finishes and if memory serves me correct, water based poly was the clearest. Need to raise grain first?

1. 
   SteveSchoene | May 05, 2006 03:26pm | #13

   Superblonde and bleached are not the same thing.  Superblonde is orange shellac which has be refined to rinse away additional natural dye coloring the shellac.  Bleached, or white shellac, has been chemically bleached.  It's only available as a liquid (Zinsser's Clear) because even the bleached flakes have a short shelf life.  The bleached shellac is also less water resistant than the various colors of orange shellac. 

1. 
   hdgis1 | May 05, 2006 04:17pm | #14

   Thanks for clarification. More important I suppose was the tendency for these things to add color. As for availability only in can, I think Olde Mille Cabinet Shop has it. Woodfinishing Enterprises may have it as well. Havent checked lately though. Can almost gaurentee that your not going to find it in flake form at your local big box or Rockler/Woodcraft