I am planning a piece of furniture and my client insists that I use a combination of curly maple and walnut. I do not stain my work, and my favorite finishing method is oil and poly, which I find ususally brings our the natural figure in many common woods and protects it well too. Can anyone recommend a single finishing technique that I can use for the entire piece that will highlight the nice maple figure and at the same time bring out the natural color of the walnut?
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Replies
postandbeam,
What is wrong with your normal method? I wouldn't use poly personally, but other than that? I just finished a curly maple & walnut picture frame with BLO and Garnet Shellac and both woods look great. If it was something that needed more protection than shellac can provide (not as often as you might think) I would use alkyd resin(hard) or phenolic resin(hardest) varnish instead of poly(soft) over the shellac.
Rob
Rob: Thanks for sharing your advice. This is a jewelry armoire, so I may take you up on your suggestion and try a top coat of shellac.
Postandbeam,
I've done a few projects mixing walnut and figured maple, and had good luck with a couple different finishes.
One of the projects was a staircase in Claro Walnut with some maple mixed into the balustrade. I sealed it with Zinnser wax free shellac to bring out the colors and figure, then top coated with a water based floor finish. It's held up in a house with a couple kids for a few years now and still looks great.
On some Claro walnut and figured maple furniture pieces, I've used gel varnish and thought it looked good. It's quick and foolproof. Great for a cold and dusty shop.
Matt
http://www.oldgreenwoodworking.com
Matt, I enjoyed spending some time in your website. All the pieces are very tasteful and well done. I especially liked the Claro Walnut and Curly Maple Sideboard. The lines in that piece are really nice. Where do you get your Claro? Jon Arno and I had some conversations about Claro. I've talked with Gary Goby about it as well. It seems that the term is somewhat slang and means different things to different people. You being from that area, I'd like to know what it means to you. I buy some Juglans Hindsii from Goby occasionally. Thanks for posting your website. Bill Lindau
Bill,Thanks for your kind words. I just think of Claro as beautiful, colorful walnut that grows here in the Willamette Valley and on down into California. My first stash of it was a 25" log gifted to me from my FIL. Now I buy from Lewis Judy @ NW timber or Gary Goby or scrounge it from local trees coming down. Goby by the way calls it "Oregon Black Walnut", a name that he has trademarked.Sorry for the hijack.Matthttp://www.oldgreenwoodworking.com
Thanks for your advice.
Not to hijack the thread, but I just took a look at your website, OldGreen, and you do some fine, fine work. Imaginative, and well executed. I am impressed.
I'd skip the poly (for everything, personally), and use an oil or oil/varnish finish. Depending on what the piece is, a topcoat with shellac may not be necessary, rather a wax finish on top of a few coats of o/v would look great.
Your technique will likely work just fine, though I would echo the thought that a traditional resin varnish will look a little nicer than poly. Difference won't be much if the films are thin.
Your challenge is more likely keeping the walnut sanding dust from contaminating the maple and vice versa.
Personally I don't think the open pores on walnut and the closed pores of the maple would be a problem and would just accentuate the contrast. But it is something you might want to address with the client before the fact. If he wants full-filled walnut you may want to jack the price a little since the filling may add a week and some picky work to the finishing process.
I tend to agree with you that a varnish, or as other have suggested shellac, will probably look better and work fine fior this jewelry armoire. I don't think anyone is expecting a full-filled walnut, but I'll have that conversation with her.
I'm not sure what you mean about the sanding dust. Do you mean that the walnut dust will get into the maple pores and vice versa during final sanding? Any sugggestions on how to prevent that?
Yes, there can be transfer. It's mostly just taking a bit of care when sanding next to the line. It's not so much the loose stuff, but stuff carried by the paper and "ground" in by it. Vaccuum and rise with mineral spirits to be sure. (The mineral spirits will reveal stuff you might not see otherwise.) Of course a card scraper doesn't create the problem in the first place.
This is a nuisance, but not terribly hard to correct or avoid.
Edited 4/19/2007 9:54 am ET by SteveSchoene
Thanks Steve.
>> Your challenge is more likely keeping the walnut sanding dust from contaminating the maple and vice versa. Good point. When I have two different colored woods next to each other, I use a scraper rather than sandpaper until I have applied my first coat of finish.Howie.........
Edited 4/19/2007 2:42 pm ET by HowardAcheson
I know you said that you don't like to stain and I'm of a like mind with respect to the really nice woods like figured Maple and Walnut. However, I've combined Curly Maply and Walnut myself and what I usually like to use is an extremely dilute amber-colored dye stain. Dye is famous for enhancing figure in Maple and an amber color is highly compatible with the natural color of Walnut - if anything it can make a normal piece of Black Walnut look a bit more like the highly prized Claro Walnut because the chief difference is just that the Claro has warmer tones in it.
As I say, I use an extremely dilute dye. My goal is to enhance the figure without leaving it looking like I've actually stained it. IMHO this approach works very well. A really white Eastern Maple will, after applying this dye, look a bit more like a Western Maple. But it definitely doesn't look artificially colored to my eye. It still looks like a natural Maple and the Walnut still looks like a natural Walnut. In fact I've found that steamed Black Walnut still has that washed out look that is associated with it even after the dye - that's how slight of a color I add.
Look at http://forums.taunton.com/n/find/findRedir.asp?webtag=fw-knots&mg=8351F982-0E0A-4A04-B0A4-42788EE2AD01
This is a bed that I made with walnut and maple accents. I used Watco as a base coat. After some experimenting I used 1/4 Watco with walnut tint / 3/4 Watco natural. This helped to tone down some of the yellowish tint that the natural Watco gave to the maple. Am currently working on the dresser and night stands to match.
I put a top coat of shellac then wipe on poly. If I would do it over, I would skip the poly and maybe the shellac.
Paul
Here is my method that has worked well for me. On the maple, use a couple of coats of Super Blonde shellac. On the walnut, I use orange shellac. Of course these are applied before assembly(my latest project had a maple center panel and a mitered walnut frame).
Then I use some type of poly, usually Deft or Minwax, sanding with 280 or 320 between coats.
The clear/blonde shellac helps to keep the lightness of the maple. The orange really enhances the walnut and helps even out minor color variations.
Good luck and watch those fingers.
Here's a curly maple/walnut picture frame I made a while back. Also discusses the finishing schedule.
http://forums.taunton.com/fw-knots/messages?msg=32126.1
Jim
I Just sent out a box with walnut and birds eye maple... I used my own poly and oil mix 50/50 then 60/40 It is a great contrast and beautiful box. ugh.... no pics.. ss
Rich
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