Cherry stain or dye on hard maple

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BarryH

New User
Barry
I'm still a noob here and this is my first question. I need a little help with finishing some hard maple. I would like to give it a darker cherry color. Some of the stains and gels I've tried do not look good at all. Does anyone have some experience with this?

I would like to use some boiled linseed oil to make the grain pop and will probably use a few layers of de-waxed shellac to seal it. It would be nice to have a topcoat (poly) on the shellac or should I stick with the shellac?

Barry

So little time and so much to learn
 

nelsone

New User
Ed
I would highly recommend using dye. I used transtint when I was making some built in units that had both maple hardwood and maple plywood. The dye shows the grain, but avoids the blotching. Looks terrible when the dye is applied, but after about 3 coats of poly everything popped.
 

merrill77

Master Scrap Maker
Chris
IMO, I've found that shellac will bring out the figure (pop!) pretty well on it's own after a few coats.

As for putting a topcoat on shellac - that really depends on the usage of the piece. Shellac provides a pretty good layer of protection for most furniture pieces. You never have to worry about sanding through a layer and it is much easier to repair/refresh later (compared to varnish/poly or conversion finishes). But for anything that will be exposed to liquids or heat, you'll want something on top of the shellac. I use shellac for pretty much everything except table tops.

But the most important advice for any finishing work: try it on sample pieces first! And don't use tiny scraps - use a good sized piece from the same lot of wood as the project. DAMHIKT.
 

BarryH

New User
Barry
I love using shellac. I am making some sign up tables for our church. Because they will have to take a fair amount of punishment from kids and adults I thought putting a top coat of poly would help protect the surface better than shellac alone. I've used boiled linseed oil on maple for another project and it really popped the grain. I may need this under a dark cherry.

I like your recommendation to use a larger test piece. I will try it with both the oil and without.
 

Tim Sherwood

Tim
Corporate Member
Try a colored shellac. I'm using Garnet on cherry to get a head start on the darkening process. It will let most of the grain show through.
 

bluedawg76

New User
Sam
by dark cherry, are you referring to the the super dark cherry found on older furniture sometimes referred to as antique cherry. For that, you'll need a dye. To stain it that dark would mostly obscure the grain, BTDT. You probably should start w/ a wash coat of clear shellac to control any blotchiness, then dye until you get the color you want, then seal coat w/ shellac, then poly for protection. Garnet or amber shellac on maple will stain it orange, BTDT. These work really well on darker woods like walnut, maybe cherry, but not so well on lighter woods like maple or oak imo, unless you want orange colored wood. However, sanding it to off can further enhance the grain, though I wouldn't recommend doing it this way on purpose, DAMHIKT. If you're going to dye it, I would probably skip the blo cuz I don't think it would make much of a difference enhancing the grain, but you could always test it. I think the blo does work well if you're going to clear coat it though (shellac or poly).

Sam
 

MikeH

New User
Mike
I would highly recommend using dye. I used transtint when I was making some built in units that had both maple hardwood and maple plywood. The dye shows the grain, but avoids the blotching. Looks terrible when the dye is applied, but after about 3 coats of poly everything popped.

I have to agree with Ed. I would suggest using dye and look up Peter Gedrys. He was at the Charlotte Woodworking show several years ago and gave an amazing presentation on using dyes and stains instead of just stains.

Here is a link to the presentation on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xErUsgT7f4M
 
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