refinishing walnut table

I need to re-finish a walnut table; the surface had been damaged by someone placing a wet plant container on it. I stripped the table, leafs, and legs. The top, leafs, and skirt boards are all appear to be made from a solid core plywood with veneer that is about 1/16 inch thick (unheard of today).

My intent is to apply some golden oak dye(pores are already filled from the first finish job), seal with amber shellac, and then use 5 or 6 coats of lacquer for a topcoat. However, there are still blotches and slight variations in the color after stripping the table. Do I (can I) do anything to get rid of these color variations before I start again, or do I ignore them and hope the dye and shellac will even things out.

Len

Reply to
lopez
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You could go with a glaze or toner rather then trying to stain the wood.

Reply to
Mike G

If the veneer is thick enough, perhaps you can sand it until there is an even color. If not, your last resort is to bleach the wood with a combination of laundry bleach, a two part wood bleach, and/or oxalic acid. The problem is, you lose the color of the wood and you will need to stain it to regain the original feel of the wood.

If you need more information, check out a finishing book, such as, "The New Wood Finishing Book", by Michael Dresdner.

Preston

Reply to
Preston Andreas

Len, I would follow the recommendation to use a glaze. I recently built a piece of furniture and used walnut that had some sap wood ... had to do the same. I actually mixed a stain using the formula below with burnt / raw umber artist oils. The artist oil pigments are smaller than the average stain off the shelf and will give better clarity. I feel that this will blend the variations well. In addition, I used garnet shellac as a sealer.

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Also, on recommendation from woodfinishing supplies ... I tried for the first time .. Waterlox. I was very pleased with the finish and was terribly easy to apply. Actually, the best bet would be to go to woodfinishingsupplies.com and get on their finishing forum, post your situation and they will get back with a recommendation within 24 hours. I have been quite impressed with these people.

Good Luck

Steve

Reply to
Steve

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