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


onoahimahi wrote:
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