Replies

1. 
   Kevin | Dec 03, 2005 07:39pm | #1

   Are you planning on staining any of it? If not, then I would say use whatever finish you prefer.

   I've only done finish samples for a client using Lyptus. So I have limited experience finishing it. In terms of protective finishes there's nothing special you need to take into consideration. It's not oily or anything like that. I wouldn't recommend a water-based stain if there's any sapwood that will be used. Other than that I can't think of any reason why you would need to treat it any differently than you do the Maple or the Walnut.

1. 
   CAGIV | Dec 03, 2005 07:44pm | #2

   Kevin, it's all going to be a clear finish, no stain at all.

   Thanks

    

1. 
   Kevin | Dec 04, 2005 05:52am | #3

   The only reason I asked about staining (and it really didn't sound like a mixture of wood species where staining would be desired...) because I did find Lyptus to react somewhat unexpectedly to water borne wipe stain. And then it was only the sapwood which reacted unexpectedly. What I ran into was the sapwood swelling much more than I would have anticipated. I'm sure it was the water rather than anything else about the stain which caused the unexpected result. The heartwood didn't swell any more than the usual grain raising that all water borne stains cause with every other species of wood. But the sapwood was like a sponge. I've never seen anything quite like it before or since.

   As I say, I only have the very limited experience with Lyptus of generating a color sample for a prospective job which subsequently fell thru. And I only tried the water borne stain because I found Lyptus didn't stain as dark as I needed and so I tried some water borne stain just to see what it would do. I was playing around with several other faux "Mahogany" species and quickly eliminated Lyptus as a good option for that particular job. But, I still have that one piece which has the sapwood that swelled much more than I ever would have guessed that it would.

   I guess the relevant point here would be that I wouldn't recommend using a water borne topcoat on your Lyptus unless you're sure that all of the sapwood will be trimmed off before it gets to the finishing stage.