Maintaining curly maple curl while staining

Hi,

I just finished small cabinet made of nice curly maple for my wife and she wants me to stain it. I picked up a bottle of Transtint dye stain that I am mixing with denatured alcohol. I'm trying the stain with scrap pieces of the curly maple to check the color. I found that when I apply the stain to wood that has not been sanded, I get a beautiful curly effect - it actually amplifies the curl for this case where I have not sanded the wood. In this case, I can still "feel" the curl on the wood's surface and the stain accents the low points. However, when I apply the stain to a piece of wood that has been sanded to match the cabinet (240 grit), the curl is not coming through very strongly. It seems to be attenuated (possibly) over the unstained case.

Any suggestions on how to stain curly maple and have the strong curly effect come through? Would it help to mix the Transtint with water instead of the "non-grain-raising" alcohol?

Thanks, Scott

Reply to
onoahimahi
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Don't worry, though there isn't as much surface variation with the finer grit, the addition of a clear finish will bring everything that's there out at its best.

At least it does for me.

Reply to
George

He mentioned stain though.

I consider that as sacrilegious as staining cherry.

Maybe he should use the same recipe that was recommended to me.

--------------------------------------------------- Odeen wrote:

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Just substitute curly Maple for cherry and you have my opinion.. ROTFLMAO

Maybe the Deft Danish oil - Fruitwood - doesn't add much colour -- but still...

Or the Tried and True Danish Oils... (See Lee Valley for Both)

Reply to
WillR

Have you tried using a scraper, rather than sanding?

Clint

Reply to
Clint

Dye is _not_ stain.

Reply to
George

Sanding to a higher grit will lessen the stain absorbtion. Also, you need to see what it looks like with the final finish, I assume poly, lacquer or shellac. The higher the gloss, the more effect you will see. I'd suggest a crystal clear high gloss lacquer that is worked down with

0000 steel wool to lower the luster a bit.
Reply to
SonomaProducts.com

Sanding will not affect dye absorption, however.

Reply to
George

I wouldn't do anything to figured wood, other than varnish it. However you obviously want to color it. My guess is that stain would show the figure better than dye.

(Just today I bought a bunch of curly cherry. You can bet nothing is going on that but BLO.)

Reply to
John

No, sorry, that's backwards. Stain obscures wood grain whether it's figured or not. Dye can bring it out dramatically.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

Reply to
Doug Miller

Chatoyance is the porperty of figured wood that causes it to change appearance when illuminated or viewed from different angles.

Stain kills the chatoyance which is what makes curly maple special. If you stain it, the effect will be much as if you had simply used stain to paint some dark streaks on plain maple.

If you want ot change the color overall, rather than highlighting the figure, you can use a colored film finish (toning).

Reply to
fredfighter

...

As others haqve noted, dye isn't stain. You're on the right track using dye instead of stain. Try scraping the wood instead of sanding, also try scraping it flat, applying the dye, and then scraping it again.

(Then let me know how it works...)

Reply to
fredfighter

Ther was an article in Fine wood working a few years ago that had a 4 step process. I think the article was named something like "Pop the grain in Curly maple". Anyway it had you apply a brown dye (water base), Sand it down to remove most stain ( it remains in the curl). Stain it again with a lighter stain. Apply an oil finish ( really brings out the grain). When oil dry apply a 2# cut of dewaxed shellac to seal. FInish with whatever you like ( varnish, laquer, et al).

Reply to
Kc-Mass

"onoahimahi" wrote in news:1111429500.207193.153240 @g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

...

It always looks a little muddy after the dye goes down. You need to add an oil to bring the figure out after you apply the dye. Then seal with a topcoat such as shellac.

I have used this recipe several times ... it's based on Jeff Jewitt's Homestead finishing site:

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prefer to go fairly light on the aniline dye.

Here are a couple of examples of pieces:

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Reply to
Nate Perkins

Reply to
JGS

I always thought of anything that soaked in and colored the wood as a "stain", even if it didn't have any pigment.

But, if it makes them feel better...

Barry

Reply to
B a r r y

Imagine you've figured it out by now, but there's a difference that is definitely a difference. What we normally refer to as "stain," is really a paint lite. It features ground pigment, a vehicle, and maybe a solvent. Key to understanding is that you have to shake it to disperse the pigment before use.

Since it's tiny pieces of color, it naturally gets retained best in the end grain, less in the face, and not at all on the surface of the harder annual rings. Problem is, it scatters light by virtue of particle size, making things a bit duller-looking. To my eye, even with the current mod 5 trifocal, this is never really compensated by the finish.

Dye, on the other hand is dissolved, not suspended in a vehicle. We generally mix the aniline dyes with water or alcohol - polar solvents - to take advantage of the fact that cellulose likes hydroxyl groups, and wood's entire macrostructure is designed for the transport of fluid with the approximate physical characteristics of water. So a dye will penetrate, rather than coat the wood, and will not fill the pores with pigment and cured vehicle. Application of a transparent finish will give a film of consistent refractive index, allowing the shape of the wood grain to bend the light, not some stain.

Bits of conventional wisdom referred to in this thread include scraping, not sanding, to leave a more open surface. Scraping doesn't pack the pores with dust, nor does it heat and harden the surface - burnish - as sanding to a high number under power can do. This hardened surface, with its contracted pores and actually reject oil, which relies on secondary channels for penetration. Not so bad with water or alcohol, because they don't rely on the same channels. Proof of that is to leave a drop of water on an oiled or waxed surface.

Reply to
George

Right:

Don't know where my brain went -- I was thinking in terms of colouring Curly Maple. Period.

As some people point out you can actually enhance the curly effect -- that would be ok in my book.

Thank you George.

Reply to
WillR

Very informative.

Thanks for the link.

You pieces look great.

Reply to
WillR

I'd like to thank everyone for their comments to my question. My major problem was that I hadn't put anything on top of the stained wood and it was cloudy. The curly grain came out after rubbing some BLO on the stained sample. After showing about seven or eight different stained and colored samples to my wife she decided she liked the one finished with dark garnet shellac. It looks great, the curly grain looks translucent.

-Scott

strongly.

Reply to
onoahimahi

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