Greetings all….
I am about to make maple cabinets for my kitchen. My wife wants a “natural” finish. The samples she has looked at are from your typical box store which labels it as natural maple. Does anyone have any insite on whether it is simply poly over maple, or is there some real lite stain involved? I certainly will be making some samples before I apply finish to the actual cabinets, but I just want a better idea of where to head.
Tim
Replies
It's hard to say without seeing the samples. But, I doubt that it's a poly finish. More likely it's either a nitro lacquer or maybe one of the new latex resin water-based lacquers.
Color would depend on what species of Maple you intend to use. Western (AKA: Big Leaf, AKA: Pacific, AKA: Brown) Maple is quite a bit browner than the eastern Maples. My guess is that this is what'll give you more of the coloration your wife has seen.
Nitro lacquer and Shellacs both impart a slight amber coloration which helps enhance that warm look. Poly won't.
The "natural" Maple furniture and cabinets that I've seen tend to be more amber than any of the eastern Maples would be with just a clear finish. How to impart that coloration is a pretty wide open question. There are a number of ways of doing it. Adding some alcohol-soluable dye to lacquer would be a super easy way. Adding water-based dye to a water-based lacquer should be equally easy. With shellac there are several grades based on the inherent color of raw Shellac. The lighter colors have been refined expressly to remove some of the color. Using a danish oil "natural" stain (which actually has an amber tint to it) would be another and then apply a clear finish over it once it's cured out. I don't use poly on wood, but I've read that it's problematic to use over danish oils.
Probably... the easiest and simplist way to do it would be just to get some of the browner Western Maple and just apply your poly finish on it.
woodworker79 ,
Just for clarification lets make sure we are all talking about the same animal . Maple with a natural finish is not the same as Natural Maple lumber . Maple when sorted and graded is typically pulled for White Maple , when the face of a board makes about 85% White it has made the grade of select White , at many mills . The boards that don't make the select White grade , then become what is called Natural Maple . The color and grain variation is much more prevalent . The color ranges from white to brown , but not red like Birch .Often Curly Fiddle Back and Birdseye grain is found . I love the Natural Maple it is probably my favorite , I try someday to post a picture of a job in NM .I use a clear natural finish / un-stained Lacquer on mine .
good luck dusty
I will likely be making it out of "white" maple. I don't want to get into special ordering wood for the cabinets. My local distributor has mainly eastern hard maple that tends to be pretty white. I guess we are looking for a slightly more amber look than the white of the maple.I'm not good with finishes yet. Well, I'm good at applying them, I just don't have enough experience to know what to use.
Woodworker,
I just finished a couple end maple tables for my sister. She asked that they be light in color. I tried to talk her into cherry but she did not want anything that dark. If I had tried to blend the natural color of the maple I'm afraid I would have had to go all the way to fresh cut cherry color...there is quite a bit of beige in the maple. I just applied a few coats of Danish oil (for color) and finished with a few coats of wipe-on poly....it's pretty light.
Earlier this year I did a shaker clock with qtr. sawn maple and shellac finish....very dark by comparison.
This usually implies a clear finish or only a slightly toned finish to even out the color as opposed to a full-blown stain job that makes the species look like something it is not. For example, staining Maple with some sort of 'Cherry' stain.
"Natural" maple finish will have blotches!
Sort of a Joke and then again not really... Sometimes hard to finish with a even tone whatever you do.. Unless you really know what you are doing with finishing.. I do not...
We made our kitchen cabinets out of maple with cherry accents. We also wanted a "natural" look. We finished with clear Watco (to add "depth" and bring out the grain), let it dry for at least two days, then sprayed 2 coats of good-quality poly, sanding lightly between coats. I considered using catalyzed poly since it's supposed to be more durable for kitchen use, but after 3+ years of use, there is no visible signs of wear. We had to be a bit more careful in selecting the wood that shows, but had no problem with uneven coloration. Eliminating the oil and just using poly leaves a finish that looks too "plastic" for my taste. YMMV.
Mike Hennessy
Hello Woodworker79,
My experience with this type of finish would be to use a blonde dewaxed shellac in a #1 cut. Use 2 maybe 3 coats sanding lightly between each using 220 to 300grit , this will stop almost all blotching and should give you a nice light amber color. Then apply a clear lacquer, 2 maybe 3 coats being careful not to get to heavy. Then using a scuff pad (scotchbrite or similar) at least #0000 or finer to take the gloss off. Before scuffing, I would give the lacquer a few days cure time. On the last pass with the scuff pad use some mineral spirits as a lubricant to give you a clean matte finish. I'll see if I can posts some pics of the maple cabinets I did awhile back.
I'm sure there are many other ways to get the same finish but this one has been the most consistant for me.
Mike K
I'm using 2# de-waxed blond shellac (AKA Zinsser Bulls Eye Seal Coat sanding sealer) under waterborne varnish (Target EmTech 8000 Pre-Cat Waterborne Conversion Varnish).
One coat shellac, light sanding w/400, 2 coats varnish.
Very light/natural color. The shellac pops the grain a bit and gives some depth and warmth. The attached is reasonably accurate for the color - the lighting is halogen.
(Big tip - check out the Nova pre-finished plywood for the cases - costs a bit more but nowhere near the work to finish the insides! The color is very close what I get with the finish described above. The finish includes 2 coats epoxy - the stuff is tough!
Very nice cabinets. That's the finish I'm looking for. Thanks for the tips!
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