Replies

1. 
   Kevin | Feb 14, 2007 09:07pm | #1

   Use a spray toner of dye or a dye/pigment blend. Any sprayed on color is the easiest and often the best way to get an even color, especially if you can achieve the desire color using just dye because it won't obscure the wood.

   The potential downside is that a strictly dye-based toner may not get the color as even as your client wants it. But pigments will obscure the wood, particularly when they're sitting on top of the wood as with a toner. So there is a potential risk that you're between a rock and a hard place with a choice between showcasing the wood grain and getting the color even. It all depends on how much color you have to add to achieve the desired look.

   Alternately you could add some of the stain to the precat. That too will help even the color out. It's really just a way to combine the toner step with the finish step. But it can be dicey. The coat has to be very even. Spraying the toner separate is easier to control, IMO.

    

1. 
   steckellis | Feb 14, 2007 10:17pm | #2

   Thank you for your advice Kevin.  Should I not be taping off and spraying more dye on every other flitch to get a more even color? Does that make sence?

1. 
   Kevin | Feb 14, 2007 10:48pm | #3

   Oh... the problem is flitch to flitch color variation? Your first post mentioned loose and tight sides? Are you talking about grain orientation where every other flitch refracts light differently? If so then changing your POV for viewing the same piece should cause the dark and light flitches to flip so that the one that looked dark before now looks light. If this is the "problem" then your client is asking for the impossible. If they don't like that then the alternative is to just paint it or to use veneer which is one solid flitch.

2. 
   ring | Feb 14, 2007 10:50pm | #4

   I'm gonna hazard a guess here - you might be having problems with the maple veneer because it's bookmatched. Maple is very strongly affected by the angle of light that hits it, and the mismatching you see might actually be an optical effect and not the finishing process. Just a thought...

   David Ring

   http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e

1. 
   steckellis | Feb 14, 2007 11:29pm | #5

   Thank you, you are right that it is the veneer but I am trying to minimize the optical effect in the finishing process.

1. 
   SteveSchoene | Feb 14, 2007 11:55pm | #6

   You may well have two things going on.  One is the optical effects of the maple, and the other is the "tight" and "loose" side.  Only the last can be truely "fixed", since you can use sawn veneer--sawing it yourself I suppose. 

   Another thing to think about is whether bookmatching is really necessary here from a design point of view.  I haven't seen the veneer, but the image I get of "quartersawn white maple" is of very mild grain.  Can you just keep the same veneer side up.  It might be the lesser evil.   

1. 
   steckellis | Feb 15, 2007 03:53pm | #8

   Thank you for your comments.  Very helpful.

2. 
   Kevin | Feb 14, 2007 11:57pm | #7

   A pigmented toner will minimize it. But the more you put on, the more the wood will be obscured. So hopefully there is a happy medium where the refractive difference is small enough to make your client happy without totally obscuring the wood.

   You probably don't have a lot of spare veneer to play with... but you could try a dye toner on top of a washcoat. The point with either approach is to get the color sitting on top of the wood. This will minimize the refraction issue. But I doubt that dye will obscure the grain enough because it is composed of much, much smaller particles than pigments are. Which is why a pigmented toner is likely your only option short of ditching the bookmatched concept and going with just one slice of veneer.

1. 
   steckellis | Feb 15, 2007 04:01pm | #9

   Thank you very much.  You have been very helpfull with all your comments.  I think from now on I will be doing slip matched when qtr. maple is required.  That should get rid of the headaches.  Again, thank you.

3. 
   doorboy | Feb 15, 2007 08:25pm | #10

   It's called "barberpoling" and AWI does not consider it a defect and as such it is not a reason for rejection. Your customer may not like the looks of it, but unless he/she specified "slip matched" veneers they have gotten what they have asked for.
   To minimize the effect, AWI recommends the use of a sanding sealer--or washcoat--to raise the grain and accept the finish more evenly. It's the same technique used to soften the blotchiness of birch and maple.
   Good Luck

   "Roger Staubach for President"

1. 
   steckellis | Feb 15, 2007 08:58pm | #11

   Thank you, very helpfull.  I think that is what we are going to do.