For the past six months, I have been working on a coffee table in the
> style of Gustav Stickley. For the past twelve months, I have been
> working on finishing it. I have almost always been dissatisfied with
> my finishing attempts, and was especially concerned in this instance
> that I find a historically and esthetically appropriate finish for the
> piece, and that it be applied to a high standard. I started reading
> about finishing even before the project was drawn or the wood
> acquired. This note summarizes what I learned and eventually the
> finish that was used. While I wanted a traditional looking finish, I
> ended up departing from the traditional technique at almost every step
> as will be explained. What follows is the list of steps used in
> finishing the table along with a list of the considered, but rejected,
> alternatives at each step.
>
>
> Step I. Ground coloring.
>
> I used an aniline water dye to provide the basic ground coloring. I
> first wet the wood with water to roughly the same extent that I would
> during the dying, and allowed it to dry thoroughly (two days). I then
> lightly sanded the fuzz with 400 sandpaper (dry). The dye was applied
> in two coats of half dilution (1/2 oz. per quart of water) to allow
> unevenness in the color of the wood to be compensated for. It turns
> out that two coats at half dilution is somewhat darker than one coat
> at full dilution. It took some experimenting to find a good color. I
> wanted a dark, rich brown that was similar to several craftsman style
> pieces that I had seen. I ended up using J.E. Moser's English Brown
> Oak. I tried their medium and dark "fumed" oak, but found those
> colors unacceptable. The medium fumed oak was distinctly green, and
> the dark had too much black in it.
>
> Alternatives considered.
>
> * Fuming. Traditionally, the ground color would have been provided by
> fuming the piece in an air-tight tent with 28% aqueous ammonia, with
> a touch-up with alcohol based aniline dye. I actually tried fuming
> sample pieces off the table, but was dismayed with the variation in
> color and with the quality of the color on the sample pieces. The
> ammonia reacts with the tannin in the wood, and different pieces of
> wood have different levels of tannin. Also, the sap wood has much
> less tannin than the heart wood and so is almost unaffected in
> fuming. I was aware of these problems before starting and had tried
> to select wood that was similar in color and to carefully cut away
> all the sap wood. But, the color after fuming ranged from light gray
> to gray-black and it turns out that some sap wood had made it into
> the table despite my best efforts to eliminate it (it stays white).
> Old books recommend using wood all from the same tree, but this was
> not an option at my local lumber store.
>
> I was after a brown or brown-gray color, but did not like the
> gray-gray that resulted from fuming. It did not match the kinds of
> colors I had seen on old fumed-finished pieces. There are a few
> species that are all marketed as "white oak", and it is possible I
> had one that was a different species (burr oak?) than the traditional
> "white oak" fumed pieces I had seen. It is also possible that the
> color I have seen is only formed over many years of mellowing or
> developing of the finish. Because of these problems, and the
> logistics of the fuming process itself (goggles, respirator,
> air-tight tents, and dangerous chemicals), I decided not to use
> fuming. Stickley claimed that only fuming would darken the rays, but
> I found the water based dye to darken the rays almost as much as the
> fuming process.
>
> * Alcohol aniline dye. Gustav Stickley warns in no uncertain terms
> not to use water based dyes, and recommends the alcohol based ones.
> He was concerned, rightly so, with the grain-raising effects of
> water on naked wood. However, I have found that I can mostly
> alleviate this problem by carefully wetting the wood with distilled
> water prior to dying. It is important to allow the wood to dry very
> thoroughly, though, in order to avoid creating hollows by sanding
> before it is dry. I was concerned that alcohol based aniline dye is
> not as light fast nor as deep penetrating as water based dye. I
> have seen several old pieces that have faded places in the coloring,
> for example, in sap wood that would have been dyed more originally
> than the rest of the piece.
>
> * NGR dye. Everything I read said that this lacked the clarity and
> light-fastness of water based dye.
>
>
> Stage II: Coloring the pores.
>
> The table is made from quarter sawn white oak with a very prominent
> tiger pattern, and a more subtle quilted pattern on some boards. The
> quarter sawing process tends to longitudinally slice the capillaries
> in the wood leaving a prominent (and interesting) pattern of pores on
> the surface of the wood. Unfortunately, water-based aniline dye has
> almost no effect on the walls of the capillaries. This leaves an
> overly prominent pattern of white dots and lines on the face of some
> boards (think of lots of tiny white PVC pipes on the surface of the
> boards). By the way, this was also true of the fumed samples. A
> couple of books mentioned that this was a potential problem, but the
> suggested solutions did not work for me.
>
> I used three coats of dark walnut danish oil finish (watco). This is
> a light tung oil varnish/linseed oil mixture with asphaltium as a
> colorant. I applied it, let it set for about 30 minutes, and then
> removed as much as possible from the surface but leaving it in the
> pores. This muted the white pores by filling them with a dark oil.
> The asphaltium in oil is a nice colorant because it enhances rather
> than obscuring the subtle quilted pattern in the wood grain. It also
> added nice black highlights for the ground color
>
> Alternatives considered.
>
> * Colored silex grain filler. Colored filler is often used on open
> grained wood like oak. However, it results in a uniform and
> unnaturally glass-like surface. I wanted an "open grain" look in
> the final piece where you could still feel the pores of the wood. >
> * Pigmented stain. This was also recommended to correct this problem.
> However, I was not able to find a stain that worked. Either the
> stain had too little effect on the pores, or it darkened the pores,
> but also obscured the wood grain everywhere.
>
> * Black wax. This is also a traditional solution. It worked well on
> some samples because it is relatively easy to apply black wax
> (furniture wax darkened with lamp black) and fill the pores without
> changing the ground color. Unfortunately, the coffee table is likely
> to encounter hard service, and a wax finish was not considered
> sufficiently durable.
>
> Stage III: Varnish.
>
> I let the oil cure for several days to avoid interactions with the
> varnish. I used a high quality natural resin varnish (Behlen's
> table-top varnish). I applied two very light coats with a good bush
> and lightly sanded with 400 paper between coats. I prepared the space
> to be as dust-free as a garage can be, and was careful not to raise
> dust while the coats dried. I used thin coats of varnish to avoid
> excessive varnish film (that would fill the wood pores), but was
> carefully to tip-off the varnish and not leave holidays in it.
>
>
> Alternatives considered.
>
> * Shellac. This is the appropriate traditional finish.
> Unfortunately, shellac is susceptible to damage from water and
> alcohol. This would not be a good choice for a table top.
>
> * Lacquer. This is the standard professional choice. It is applied with a
> spray gun in a spray booth with explosion-proof ventilation fans.
> As an amateur, my measure of an acceptable finishing method is
> different than the professionals. In particular, just as I am
> willing to cut mortises and dovetails by hand, I am willing to spend
> lots of time and labor to achieve a good finish. The professional
> is constrained by the costs of labor and free to use much more
> expensive equipment than I could justify for my hobby projects. I
> was also somewhat surprised to learn that varnish is actually a
> superior finishing product to lacquer, just too labor intensive to
> use in a professional shop. By the way, Gustav Stickley keeps
> mentioning "German Lacquer" in his notes on finishing. It turns out
> that this is an old name for amyl acetate (a shellac thinner), and
> has nothing in common with what we currently call lacquer.
>
> * Polyurethane. Polyurethane, in addition to looking like plastic,
> does not rub-out well.
>
> Stage IV: Rubbing out.
>
> I let the varnish cure for 8 days. Next, I hand-rubbed the finish to
> produce a satin finish for the eyes and the fingers. I began by
> carefully sanding with 600 paper wet with water. I then rubbed with
> 2F pumice followed by 4F pumice lubricated with rubbing oil (light
> mineral oil). I was carefully, but not careful enough, not to rub
> through the finish at the edges. I stopped with 4F pumice rather than
> rottenstone since I wanted a satin finish.
>
> Stage V: Waxing.
>
> I coated the table with one coat of black wax followed by one coat of
> natural (brown) wax. The black wax filled some of the most prominent
> remaining white pores, and the natural wax sealed in the colored wax. > > > >
> The results were quite satisfactory. The color is good, dark brown
> with black markings. The clarity is excellent: the rays are luminous
> and the grain pattern and color changes in a complex mosaic as the
> viewing angle changes. The pore pattern is subtle and interesting,
> and still apparent to the touch. The finish has a pleasant satin look
> and feel. There is minimal streaking caused by the wax. If I were
> finishing a piece that was not subject to the wear of a table top, I
> would use shellac instead of varnish since it would result in a
> thinner finish film. Aside from that, I would use this method again. > > > --
> Todd Knoblock
> snipped-for-privacy@microsoft.com
>
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Hi Todd, Thanks for all your research and for sharing. I'm going to follow your process on my Stickley coffee table.Planning on building another one for myself. Paul