"SonomaProducts.com" wrote in message

I've made them out of maple - curly - and applied a
Watco finish to the first three. Ugly blotchiness. I
read to use the Minwax stain conditioner, so I bought a
small can and applied it to a test piece. I applied the
conditioner and then applied the Watco. Still the same
problem.



OK, staining Maple is pretty much impossible. The wood is
just not really amenable to any "staining" technique. You
can "dye" it a little easier but it is still difficult.
With the many steps technique below, you can get
excellent results. I have studied this extensively.

Options.
1. Tone it. This is a technique of adding color to the
film finish (lacquer, shellac, poly). Minwax has a
product call Polyshades that uses this concept. Kind of
hard to get good results because it shows overlaps. The
best way to do this technique is to use a shade lighter
than you want and build a few coats to get your color.
This will not accentuate the figure, it is just a way to
sort of add some color.

2. Use Dye.
I have detailed this here before, even recently but can't
find the post.
Here is how to dye curly maple
- Use Transtint dye mixed in water
- Wet the whole piece with clear warm water, let dry and
lightly hand sand off raised grain hairs.
- Wet piece again then apply black water based dye.
Wetting first helps to make applying dye very easy and it
goes on evenly. Dying dry wood is really difficult to get
even coverage. I try to keep the whole piece wet until I
am dine adding the round of color.
- After dry sand of 95% of black dya it the remaining dye
accentuates the figure (curl)
- Wet the piece again and hand sand off the raised grain
once dry
- Wet the piece then dye with vintage maple water based
dye
- Note, at this point you will be sure you have ruined
the piece. Dye without shellac or lacquer, etc. looks
like crap.
- Then oil with Tung and let dry a week.
- It will look pretty good now
- Then shellac or lacquer, whatever
- It will look great
- Then wax. Clear wax for a fresh look, brown or black
wax for an antique look.
- It will look fantastic
Examples of this technique
http://www.sonomaproducts.com/images...es/curly/1.jpg
http://www.sonomaproducts.com/images...es/curly/2.jpg
http://www.sonomaproducts.com/images...es/curly/3.jpg
http://www.sonomaproducts.com/images...es/curly/4.jpg
http://www.sonomaproducts.com/images...es/curly/5.jpg

Dang, it *does* look great. Almost like koa

--

dadiOH
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