Finishing question

[Dnorris1369]

Hey everyone. Looking some advice on finishing some dining table chairs. I have some hard maple chairs i would like to try and match with or at least look decent with my hickory dining table. Any suggestions on finishing the maple.?? Thanks


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[Bas]

The sky is the limit when it comes to finishing. While you want some level of protection for dining chairs, you don't have to worry about heavy duty protection like a table would.

Do you want to keep the light color of the maple or do you want the golden/ amber tint you get from applying oil? Do you have a sprayer? It would help if you could post a picture of the dining table. Maple and Hickory are quite different in color, so getting a match won't be simple.

A fairly foolproof finish is to apply a coat of boiled linseed oil to bring out the color of the wood. Let that cure, then wipe on 3-4 coats of polyurethane, lightly sanding in-between. The end result may or may not be dark enough to match the hickory though, so you should consider using a dye to adjust the color.

If you prefer water-based, Endur-Var is an excellent finish that is easy to apply by brush. Again, you'd probably want to add a dye to darken the color.

 

[Graywolf]

Bas makes some good points. Not knowing your experience level I would suggest a wipe on finish of some type. However, the hard maple probably looks pretty white compared to the hickory. Pictures would help us help you.The best to hope for is to have these pieces blend together. The results are going to be subjective.
So what is your experience level in finishing?
What kind of work space are you dealing with?
Is it a conditioned space? This will effect how long the project will take and what tools can be used.
Do you have spray equipment and experience using it?
Personally I would have to assume your a beginner and advise you to use some dye in a wipe-on poly. you can use a dye to tint a small portion of this finish and test it out on a scrap of hard maple to get close to your desired color. Once reasonably satisfied with the color I would apply the mix to the pieces by following the instructions on the can. Allow to dry over night, and then you judge if your color is dark enough, if not then apply a second coat of the mix, if it is satisfactory then apply a coat of just poly. Allow this to dry over night. Once dry you can buff this out with 0000 steel wool or a gray synthetic abrasive pad, and then apply a light coat of paste wax. I know this may sound like a lot of steps and a lot of work, but this is one of the ways I would personally do this project.
I teach a beginning workshop on finishing a couple times a year, if you look under classes training and workshops education in the forum list you will find the workshop and you can sign up for the wait list.
Again please share some pictures of what you wanting to do and we may be able to help further.

 

[Dnorris1369]

There’s a rough pic of table as it was being built.


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[Oka]

Take a scrap piece to test. The color tint you are looking for will be between yellow ochre and brown ochre. You will need to temper a tiny bit of diluted black. However your eye will be final determiner. Remember, the woods react differently to finishes, so once you are in the zone of the color you want you will need to toy with the finish to make sure the blend from Hickory to Maple is a smooth transition. This is a tricky thing, you are dealing with many variables. Not necessarily hard but tricky.
Graywolf, has a class in this and is he is an excellent teacher. When he does the next one consider taking it, all benefit regardless of skill level.

Here is one approach used by refinishers when matching fixes, would be the same for this -

If you wanted to get tricky, mask the hickory then stain it to match the hickory, after staining the maple , remove the masking let it dry, then mask off the maple add your finish to the hickory, then remove the masking from the maple, then sand the transition joint 1-2 inches in , then tint the final finish for the maple, then mask the hickory add the finish to the maple, then remove the masking, then sand the entire top with 600 lightly, then add the final finish.

Richard may have an easier way,

 

[Graywolf]

I love the character in the Hickory, it’s beautiful. Unless you want to get into a lot of painting in grain you’re only going to get a tone match and nowhere near the character you have on that table top. With that said you should aim toward the background tone of the Hickory which is the lightest color you see in the wood. You may push just a slight shade darker but not much. Again I would grab scrap piece or two of hard maple that is close to the natural color of your chairs and practice on that. Once you have a satisfactory match on those along with a written process of what you did (that is very important) to follow should you work on the chairs.
Now I’m not the kind of person that has to have everything in my home match. I spent many year with an Oak table with Iron pine chairs, and I was very happy with how they looked. So would it you choose a color or tone that is a compliment to the table and not worry about trying get a close match. that would take the pressure off of you trying to match the table. Because I’ll tell you that Hickory and Hard Maple is about as far a part as you can get. I would be inclined to celebrate that fact. That’s my two pennies worth of opinion. I truly hope this helps some. Please feel free to ask more questions on this.

 

[Dnorris1369]

Thanks so much for the advice. I think maybe I won’t worry so much about matching colors and just celebrate now the fact that after 5 years we now have chairs that aren’t hand me downs around our table


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[Graywolf]

Thanks so much for the advice. I think maybe I won’t worry so much about matching colors and just celebrate now the fact that after 5 years we now have chairs that aren’t hand me downs around our table


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Perhaps you can build chairs out of Hickory at a later time and enjoy what you have now.