finishing question DO

[RayV]

I'm hoping to have my project ready for some finish this weekend. Based on a test of water-based stain followed by BLO vs Danish Oil SWMBO will probably want the DO.

I picked up what I hope will be the right color (Dark Walnut) and Watco instructions say to flood the surface and leave for 30 minutes then reapply.

Do I just pour it on and spread with a brush or rag? The tables are Maple so I doubt much will soak into the wood in 30 minutes.

After letting dry for 72 hours (per instructions) I plan to cover with Varnish (not poly).

[dadiOH]

Whatever works. _____________

To each their own but danged if I understand why people build something of quality hardwood and then color it to resemble something else.

Nor do I understand why people apply an oil then apply oil varnish on top of it. Just the varnish would give the same effect.

[SonomaProducts.com]

Yikes. You will find that Maple will not take much color, not evenly and especially not from an oil finish. I'm afraid what you'll get is dirty looking Maple that is very unappealing.

While I would likely never go this route myself, I find myself reccomending it quite a bit here on the wreck; use MinWax Polyshades. It will coat over the top of the wood with a transparent colored finish. Be very careful to get even coats and build several coats to the darkness you want.

BW

[B A R R Y]

TEST IT! It sounds as if you haven't tried Dark Walnut Watco.

A dark oil may very well blotch on maple, and the smooth surface of maple will allow lots of the asphaltium (? ) pigment in that color to wipe right off.

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[bridgerfafc]

oil dries slower and allows for more working with while wet. it penetrates further because it has more time for capillary action to pull it in. fresh oil on top of yesterday's oil makes no witness lines and watching how it absorbs gives good feedback as to how well saturated the wood is. wood saturated to capacity with oil has significantly different optical properties than wood with a surface film alone.

however, the oil doesn't provide much surface protection. varnish is a good, tight, tough surface film.

[RayV]

You and B A R R Y were right on. I had tried DO 'natural' on Maple and liked the way it enhanced the grain esp. the curly figure.

However, when I got the dark DO and tried it on the Maple the color didn't take very well (blotchy and not nearly dark enough). Went and got the h2o based polyshades and got just the color SWMBO wanted.

I really like building with maple especially for furniture but I'm finding that putting a finish on it when you want color is a PITA.

As a side note all of the trouble I went through to find boards with some curly figure were for naught. SWMBO said "I don't like those lines", those panels have now become the shelves. Luckily I made all of the panels big enough it won't matter.