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An "appropriate" finish for a Stickley-style oak table.
On Thursday, August 15, 1996 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, Todd Knoblock wrote:
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 http://www.research.microsoft.com/re...phics/knoblock 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 |
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