Replies

1. 
   Dave45 | Dec 20, 2007 01:18am | #1

   I recently made this walnut display stand for a customer's bronze sculpture and he asked me to make up some samples of finishes so he and his better half could decide what they liked best.

   With great reluctance, I used two dark walnut stains on some pieces of scrap.  One was good old Minwax followed by two coats of oil-based poly.  The other sample got two light coats of Minwax's Dark Walnut + Poly.  To my surprise, they both came out quite well - even hiding some light brown areas.

   I really gotta quit giving customers so many options.  I've made eight samples for these folks using tung oil, shellac, oil-based poly, water-based poly, etc, etc.  They like all of them, but can't quite settle on one! - lol

   
2. 
   knuts | Dec 20, 2007 04:51pm | #2

   I rag on Onyx stain and before it dries, I wipe on dark walnut over the whole area to blend. So far, it's worked for me.

3. 
   LesT | Dec 20, 2007 06:09pm | #3

   I've applied walnut stain when I want a really dark walnut finish, but I have grown really fond of applying garnet shellac (the darkest stuff). My walnut seemed to have a purple tinge and the garnet gave it a very warm chocolate color. Plus the shellac will dry very fast. Good luck.

   Les

1. 
   Maridon | Dec 23, 2007 10:17pm | #4

   The proceedure that Lonnie Bird used on some of his walnut projects to even out the different colors was to Bleach the wood, stain with red maple water based stain,  use orange shellac for the finish and finaly glaze and seal it.

   Walnut lightens through the years to produce a beautiful rich reddish brown so why fight it? This method will result in the color it will become eventually.