Replies

1. 
   YesMaam27577 | Apr 28, 2007 11:03pm | #1

   They probably used a water-based finish, but had not raised the grain first.

   Or, if you want to do some faux-graining yourself, there are tools available at most of the big box stores.

    

    

    

   Support our Troops. Bring them home. Now.  And pray that at least some of the buildings in the green zone have flat roofs, with a stairway.

2. 
   user-83153 | Apr 28, 2007 11:36pm | #2

   rog,

     Are you talking about a piece that was ebonized? This is a finish that looks like black paint but allows the grain to show through on heavily grained wood (think flatsawn oak). On a wood with a lighter grain (think maple) it might not be easily visible but you could feel it.

                         Rob

1. 
   rog | Apr 29, 2007 12:30am | #3

   Rob

   I don't think it was ebonized. The grain was pretty uniform and I tend to believe that it was a graining tool that was used. Does anyone know what type of wood is used with a graining tool?

   Roger

1. 
   Rich14 | Apr 29, 2007 04:01am | #4

   A "graining tool" produces a "faux (fancy way to say "false") finish in the finishing material (usually an opaque or semi-opaque paint-like material). It doesn't produce tactile grain in the wood. It can be used on any closed-grained wood, but is usually used on pine or other cheaper woods to imitate a more expensive wood. What you have described sounds like an open-grained wood such as oak or ash, possibly hickory that was finished with a paint or deep stain. Rich

2. 
   Kevin | Apr 29, 2007 05:40am | #5

   There is no particular type of wood that is used for faux graining. Indeed wood usually isn't used, thus the point of faux graining.

   Maybe a clearer description of what you saw and felt would be helpful here. Obviously you could feel something. When you ran your finger nail over the surface was what you felt something raised above the surface that your fingernail slid up and over or a groove that your fingernail dropped down into?

3. 
   SteveSchoene | Apr 29, 2007 07:39am | #6

   This sounds like the sort of finish you would get by coating an open pored wood with a black lacquer, or a black acyrlic waterborne finish.  What was the "Made in .........." location.  If in an Asian country it could have been the Asian white wood so commonly seen which has relatively small open pores.  (I don't really know what it is, just see some variety of it on a great many inexpensive imports.)  No need to use any sort of graining tool on such an open pored wood.  It would be more expensive for the maker to avoid the apparent grain than to let it remain apparent.  If made in USA it would have been ash or hickory or oak.  The same effect could be achieved by painting walnut or mahogany, but almost certainly was not, for obvious reasons. 

1. 
   rog | Apr 29, 2007 04:19pm | #7

   Steve

   I think you are probably right about the Asian origin. This was inexpensive furniture... The type of stuff you would purchase for a kids bedroom. At first I suspected it was some type of melamine and checked the sides for grain. I thought it was quite attractive though and could see using it on doors of a bathroom vanity or the like.

   Would you know a brandname of the type of waterbased finish I could try. I have some ash in the shop. How far should I sand prior to finishing?

   thanks

   Roger

1. 
   [email protected] | Apr 29, 2007 10:14pm | #8

   I have bedroom set in the guest room, that is a higher end Danish Modern piece from the early fifties.  It was walnut and rosewood veneers on lumber core ply, with a laquer finish. 

   I lent it to the neice, and she decided to do her bedroom in black and white.  She scrubbed of the original finish with laquer thinner, and a scothc brite pad.  She then spray painted them with black Krylon.  (We won't talk about how pissed I was the first time I saw it.) 

   The grain is distinctly there, and you can feel it if you run your hand across it. 

   I will admit that now I'm used to it, it is okay, and when I moved last year she came and painted the room a yellow, and it does look good the way she decorated the room.  I still think the walnut and rosewood would have looked better. 

   Someday, when I run out of other projects, I may try getting the spray paint off, and refinishing them.  But I think getting the spray paing out of the pores will be impossible.