"Jay Pique" wrote in message
...
I've finished milling all the parts for what I thought was a simple
shelving job, but I've now got an issue. The client has changed her
mind about color, and would prefer that I had made everything from
Walnut so it would match her counters. Anyone have any ideas on how
to dye and/or stain hard maple to look like walnut? I'm not remaking
everything, and the client knows this, so we're just going to do the
best we can. Thanks in advance.

JP

Jay,

As others have stated, hard maple doesn't take stain that well and dyes
or gel's would yield better results.

Let me offer an alternative, low cost solution. Black goes great with
walnut. Should all else fail, you can ebonize those maple shelves
using vinegar and a steel wool pad and some Quebracho extract from Van
Dykes. The extract is mixed with some water and painted on to the wood
and left to dry. This adds tannin to the wood. The vinegar / steel
wool mixture is made about a week in advance (it can be sped up if
needed) to make the oxide.

That is then painted on over the tannin and watch for a black that
defies description. Brian Bogg's (chair maker) wrote an article for
Popular Woodworking last year and gave the steps in his article. Not
difficult at all. I have since done 3 projects that I've used this
ebonizing method and have done it on hard and soft maple, walnut and
poplar - all with great results. A few coats of your favorite finish
to match the sheen of the cabinets and you're done.

Below is a copy of a post I made in Aug of last year about his article
that provides details if you're interested in this alternative idea:
.................................................. ................................................
For those that may be interested in ebonizing wood, there is an
excellent tutorial by Brian Boggs in the June issue of Popular
Woodworking on page 40.

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/ar...Ebonizing_Wood


I was requested to build an urn for my brothers dear old black lab that
recently passed away. Her fur was black as coal and shined like black
chrome in the sunlight. I was saving a nice plank of curly maple for
something special and this certainly qualifies as special in my book.


Made the box and pondered how to finish it - wanted to do something
extra special. Black fur, Brain's article on ebonizing and I had my
answer. I can't give all the details of the article (copyright) but my
results from following Brian's tutorial exceeded my expectations.
Sure, the pictures in the article show a deep rich black finish that
only a pro could achieve - so I thought....


Ordered the 2lb package of quebracho extract from Van Dyke's Taxidermy
( www.vandykestaxidermy.com ) and bought a quart of a national,
name-brand white vinegar that Brian insists is the best one to use.
Brian suggest several methods for making the iron mixture and I choose
the steel wool route. Took a fresh 0000 pad and cleaned it with hot
water and soap to get rid of any oil and rinsed it. Poured the vinegar
into a quart jar and tossed in the steel wool pad.


Let that dissolve / rust for a week or so and then strain the mixture
thru a coffee filter. Brian suggests a faster, 1 day method but
nothing you want to do indoors he say's in the article.


Come the day to apply the magic potions and I made sure that the wood
was wetted and sanded (to 320 grit) several times so as to avoid
raising the grain again after applying the quebracho extract mixture (1
heaping tblspn to 1 pint warm water). Again, Brian goes into excellent
detail on how to apply and what not to do and I did exactly what he
said not to do. I contaminated the mixture and had to start over.


I coated the whole box in separate sections (top, bottom and the
assembled box) with the quebracho extract mixture (bark tea) using a
nylon sash brush and let it soak in for 30-40 minutes. You want the
chemical reaction to happen down in the wood fibers as Brian say's in
the article, and not like ink laying on the top. After a good soaking
with the bark tea, I made sure the wood was still damp but no puddles
of water spots.


Time to apply the iron mixture. Be sure you don't rub the wood surface
during any of this - you want to avoid burnishing the wood. Again I
used a nylon sash brush to apply the iron mixture. The chemical
reaction is immediate and within 30 seconds or so, you will have a
black surface - maybe not so good looking at first but give it time and
be sure you coat everything.


Let everything dry and buff it all with a clean cloth. At this point
you are probably saying "where's that deep rich black look he was
promising?". It's there, just need to apply another coat of the
quebracho extract (no iron mixture this time) and wash the surface with
it. Blot off any puddles and let it dry. Buff one last time and be
ready to be amazed !


Swipe some mineral spirits on to clean the piece and see how it will
look with your favorite finish....damn, that is really, really black. I
mean, no bluish tint at all and it is simply a gorgeous deep black. I
don't have access to any binary groups or I would post a picture but
the picture on the Popular Woodworking site of Brian's chair
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/ar...Ebonizing_Wood gives you a
pretty good idea of how it looks.


I did some further testing on some scraps. I wanted to see how far it
really penetrated the fibers or was this just a stain laying on the
surface. I can assure you that by following Brian's directions and
allowing the bark tea to soak in, it goes deep. After some hand
sanding with various grits, I was no where near bare wood. Finely took
some 80 grit and my ROS and about 5 minutes sanding on a 10" square
piece of maple scrap to get to bare wood. There were still streaks in
the curly sections that were grayish / black. So this is definitely
not a surface treatment and definitely a process worthy of your time if
you're looking to ebonize some wood.


I sent Brian a thank you note for such an excellent tutorial. It's dead
simple, extremely low cost (~$7USD for the quebracho extract ) and the
cost of a quart of vinegar and a steel wool pad (or some rusty old
nails....).


I tried the process on some small samples of pine, (not so good) but on
hardwoods like maple, walnut, oak and ash it worked nicely.


Should you be interested, Brian's site can be found here...
www.brianboggschairs.com


No affiliation, just a happy camper.


Bob S.