Folks, I’m a little stumped here. I am working with curly maple on a piece of work that has considerable end grain. I am using water-soluble dye to highlight the curl. If I don’t seal the end grain, it gets much too dark. I have tried sealing end grain (test pieces) with very light coat of shellac, and also with a water-based pre-staining sealer. Both aboslutely killed the figure. In past use of curly maple, I didn’t have as much end grain to worry about.
Any thoughts appreciated.
Replies
Stan,
I'm not sure this will work on curly maple or not, but I have used it with success on oak and other species, trying to get end grain to finish out similar to face grain: whatever grit sandpaper you used to sand the face grain, sand the end grain to a few grits finer. In other words, if face gr. sanded to 180 grit, sand end gr. to 220 or 320. Practise on scrap first. Gary
I would try this sequence: use a very dilute water soluble dye only on the flat surfaces, not the end grain, if that is possible. Then you can lightly sand the dyed area to remove dye from the surface, leaving dye where it has soaked into the figure. The figure will be enhanced and the over-all tone of the piece will be little darkened. You can then use an very light applicatrion of oil, or oil/varnish to further enhance the grain, including the end grain. If the end grain is too light the oil will have acted as a pre-stain conditioner.
Of course you are trying a this on scrap first.
P.S. Gary's grit differential is exactly the right thing with pigmented stain, but makes little difference with dye.
Edited 1/16/2006 11:35 pm ET by SteveSchoene
Thanks guys. I hoped to avoid sanding as it is a difficult-to-sand routed profile. But will try the suggestions.
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