I’m making a small bookshelf for my daughter out of elm, with a Carpathian elm burl veneer door panel. I’ve never worked with elm before and was actually impressed with it’s milling characteristics. Now that it’s time to choose a stain or dye and finish, I’m stumped as to what will look good.
Any suggestions on what will give it a good color? The grain on the case is fairly mild, the veneer is wild and darker in color. Thanks for your input and suggestions.
Replies
My color suggestion is no color. What's the need to color such an elegant looking wood? If you do have to color it. I'd suggest a dye instead of a pigment stain so as to avoid muddling the nice figure in elm.
Just my opinion!
Thanks for the input and suggestions. I'm running some experiments on scraps now: Van Dyke crystals (medium brown), kushmi shellac, and shellac over a honey amber dye. So far the shellac by itself looks the best, it brings out the subtle chatoyance in the boards. Any other ideas out there are welcome.
To the fellow windy city guy (I grew up in Mt. Prospect the home of the Blues Brothers police car!) I remember those elms lining the streets, big enough to hide behind in those endless summer evening hide-and-go-seek games.
Jim... I'll declare a soft spot for elm; I'll curse it to hell and back when planing it but the end results are well worth the effort.. Over time I've learned to steer clear of anything but a clear finish; anything less seems to dull some of the more subtle colours into a uniform muddy coffee colour. Thesedays I prefer to use a simple clear wax...
Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
I use a fair amount of elm, build hope chests, wall shelves ect.Most of the time i stain it using early american or half and half early america and golden oak. I use Minnwax , a pigment stain, spray several coats of lacquer on it ,looks prettey nice I also like to wse a lot of flat cut boards so lots of grain shows.
Have a nice day Lee
ELM.. I remember them! WE had BIG.. REALLY BIG... trees here in Chicago when I was a kid.. I just loved them trees! TO bad they are ALL dead! Dang!
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