Finishing Maple

[Lee Shivley]

what's the best way to darken the wood slightly and to put a glossy finish on maple

I'm a novice any help would be appreciated

[Robatoy]

Maple doesn't take stain very well. It more often than not, comes out blotchy. A product like PolyShades, which is basically a poly with some dye in it, can put an even look onto maple. Try that. The kind of stain that does seem to work a little better are the analine dyes. Again, you'd have to try that.

[Garage_Woodworks]

I'll second the analine dye. Try TransTint. It is a water/alcohol soluble dye. Just dilute with the solvent to your liking (try on scrap) and go for it.

As for glossy finish. It is hard to screw-up Wipe-On-Polyurethane. Put on

4-5 coats of Glossy.

[Lew Hodgett]

Trying to finish maple just plain sucks.

I used WoodKote gel stain and got decent results.

It is a wipe on, wipe off type of product.

Lew

[Leonard Shapiro]

hi try a toner. that's what I did to both hard maple and soft maple and finished with a couple coats of poly.

len

[RayV]

I've had good results with water-based stain. Finish sand surface then wipe down with a damp cloth and let dry. Lightly sand again to knock off the raised grain. If you try to sand the raised grain after you stain/dye you will no doubt go down to bare wood because it doesn't penetrate.

[Jim Weisgram]

You might consider the classic solution of a washcoat of dewaxed shellac, then whatever finish you prefer on top of that. The washcoat helps control the blotchiness that maple is prone to.

Whatever you do, test on some scrap first.