I want to have an even finish using solid Oak & oak plywood
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I was wondering if someone could help me finish a desk I am building. I am using solid oak as well as oak plywood. I want to get an even finish and am looking for sugestions. I have used gel stain on some scrapes but they are not even in color, any suggestions?
Thanks
Replies
Do you mean that the plywood and the solid wood take the stain differently, giving the plywood and the solid different colors? What happens if you just wet the samples down with mineral spirits. Are the colors similar in that test?
Do you have spray capacities?
What kind of color--hue and shade do you have in mind? Do you plan to fill the pores of the oak.
Johnny, it starts with your choice of materials. If your solid oak is QS then the veneer must be also, or at least rift cut, in order to match the grain characteristics. If the oak boards are flatsawn then the veneer should be also. The second issue pertains to how the veneer is glued up, and what finish you are aiming for. Since oak is a very porous wood, thin veneer tends to fill with adhesive when the panels are glued up, sometimes even bleeding through to the other side. This adhesive in the pores can change the look of certain finishes dramatically, while hardly affecting others.
Like always, run some tests on scrap pieces to see what to expect.
The oak is not quartersawn or rift sawn. it is flatsawn. I am just looking for a uniform color. I tried minwax gel stain, but the plywood is darker than the red oak. any suggestions?
did you sand/scrape/plane all your test pieces? i often find that rougher wood (ie not sanded takes a finish differently) than sanded wood.i wold lightly sand your plywood with 180 or 220 and see if that evens it out. you may also need to give additional coats to the solid pieces to acheive a similar colour.good luck.
Steve posed a number of relevant questions.
For what it's worth, a number of people have reported great difficulty trying to make hardwood and plywood oak look the same.
Tinted lacquer vs. Stain
There are too many variables involved that prevent "simple" answers. But in general, the approach taken by the furniture industry to uniform finish is to lay a clear sealing coat on everything, then use tinted coats of lacquer to get the desired color. Stains, which penetrate the wood, will accentuate any differences (which is why they can accentuate the highlights of a good piece). By using tinted lacquer you are essentially preventing any penetration and covering everything with a uniform "cloud" of color.
First, I would jettisdon the Minwax gel stain. I've tried it several times and have had miserable luck with it.
I have done much better with the Woodkote brand of gel stains. They jacked up their prices a couple of years ago, but I still buy it, since it outperforms any other gel stain I have used.
This gel stain will work very well in evening oout the tones between plywood veneer and solid wood.
What's the general color you are shooting for?
even finish
Even solid wood will be different colors, not to mention ply veneered wood. The problem is, in solid wood it isn't as unacceptable as it is in veneered wood that sits next to solid. Commercially they spray a sealer and spray a color with finish in it. You must sand all pieces to the same grit and you are limited to the ply which is very fragile and can't be sanded very much at all, usually 220. I would then use a dye (alcohol) to even the color out somewhat. I would then use a dye/ stain (water based) to artistically blend in the color. This worked well with a mahogany piano I did because it had veneered and solid pieces, and like your it stained up differently enough to notice the two forms of wood. Test out first on scrap. I think what happens is the light layers of color diminish the difference in the woods used.
Try a Washcoat of dewaxed shellac
I have used a washcoat of dewaxed shellac on plywood and veneer to help control for over absorption of stain. I have used Zinsser Universal Sanding Sealer diluted to half strength with denatured alcohol with good results. It takes some experimenting, but by sealing the plywood and not the solid oak the colors get very close. I have also used the sanding sealer in between a base coat of dye and gel stain (minwax works fine for me). On an oak newel post, I first dyed the oak yellow, sealed the plywood panels, and then applied a red mahogany gel stain finished with wipe on poly. The overall result is a very nice almost antique looking finish.
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