Hello and help.
People, I messed up big time on this one. This is a lengthy story, but it has to be told in i’ts entirety surmise a solution. I was given several clothing disassembled racks that where used in a known clothing store. They where constructed of Maple and finished with a light Maple stain, Very nice job, that ended there. I disassembled the racks and ended up with a massive amount of 2″x2″x 4′-6″ square spindles and about 500 lf. of 6/4 x 5″x 58″ boards. I striped the finish with lacquer thinner, planed to size, glued up pieces for appropriate parts, sanded to 150 grit and built a large 10 drawer dresser/ armoire, 2 bed side tables and a king size headboard, with lumber left over for 2 other small projects that ere yet to start. I do have a lot of experience building and finishing, but I,m no pro. I bought Jeff Jewitt’s book (Finishing) to learn the secrets and for my personal drive to get to the next level. Jeff’s book was great and insightful, let me be clear, no blame to Jeff. Now the problem. I stained the pieces with Star penetrating oil stain (brown mahogany) this came out very blotched, I proceeded to stain over with Olympics oil stain (mocha). Still very blotched. next was. I bought the TransTint dye, mixed it with Deft and tried to tone to a more consistent shade. That was going ok until I tried to topcoat it with clear Deft. It run everywhere. Wiped it all off with lacquer thinner, let it dry then mixed the dye with Shellac not bad, but it did orange peel slightly and the depth and coloring looked kind of cheap, wiped all that down with denatured alcohol. I now have dresser with no finish and a bad brown stain job. I don’t know what to. Can you please help me. thank you.
Replies
I'm afraid you have discovered one of the main rules of finishing. Make the mistakes on good size pieces of scrap and not on the project by working through the entire finish sequence as a test.
The mistake was in trying to use a pigmented stain directly on the maple. Maple is very prone to blotching with any pimgmented stain. You can limit that some by using a pre-stain conditioner or wash coat, but with the side effect of not being able to get any darker shades, becasue the conditioners work by limiting the woods absorption of stain.
To achieve any medium to dark shade the best way to have proceed would have been to start with a dye directly on the bare wood. Dye is less prone to blotching. Best would have been a powdered aliline dye that mixes only in water. Then that could be sealed, even with a thinned topcoat or with shellac. A gel stain over that as a toner would add some depth and evenness. At that point you could use the brushing lacquer by Deft to complete the finish.
So much for "might have done". First I would duplicate what you have done on the pieces on some of the same kind of wood so you can test the results before going ahead. If you were happy with using the deft as a toner until it "ran" under the next coat, you could repeat that step, but instead of brushing on a lacquer top coat that as you discovered disturbed the toner layer, you might spray a sealer coat on top of that. Zinsser makes an aerosol shellac that might work. Just start with a pretty dry coat. After one dry coat and one coat a little bet wetter, but not wet-wet, you could finish up with a oil based wiping varnish without fear to disturbing the toner layer.
Alternatively, you could use a gel stain as a toner probably best over a light sealing coat of shellac. This would obscure the maple a bit more, but could provide another stage of more even color. Give that plenty of time to cure before applying a top coat.
Steve,Do you think that a "glaze" would provide some 'evening' effect?Frosty"I sometimes think we consider the good fortune of the early bird and overlook the bad fortune of the early worm." FDR - 1922
Steve, Thank you for your input. I left out a lot of information. I did make 4 sample boards they where about 4" x 36". They where all sanded to 180 grit just like the furniture. On 3 of these I mixed the TransTint dye with denatured alcohol as a base coat, applied a pigmented stain, sealed with deft (sprayed) then distressed it with a oil base glaze. The last sample I applied the Star stain first then followed with Olympic oil stain, deft and it turned out real good. I believe I just got lucky on that piece, but the latter was how I tried to finish the dresser.I believe this was my mistake I still have the side tables and the headboard. I will make up larger sample patterns and try dying the wood first. I,m not sure on how to apply a seal coat of shellac. I have Zinsser amber shellac. Do I thin it and will the stain penetrate the seal coat. I do have an HVLP spray system and a conventional spray gun and a touch up gun that I applied the toner with. I will also try the gel stain on the damaged piece and try again with the toner. Do you have better success with adding toner in a lacquer or shellac. I do like the glow and depth that shellac produces. Is shellac a good finish coat. I also have Jeff Jewitt's water borne lacquer that I used on other pieces. The article Jeff wrote on distressing with glazes worked really good for.
Thanks again.
Another thing I thought of, Maybe the oil base stain was not dry when I sprayed the Deft with the toner in it. Then when I sprayed the clear Deft the product below that was wet even though to the touch it was dry. I'm going to start from scratch with your suggestion on some sample pieces before starting the others. Wish me luck
I just built a bookcase out of maple ply and solid stock do you think I can get even color by using sealcoat and general gel stain.
You can get a good finish if you take the time to do the prep work. 90% of any/all finish work is in the prep. http://www.josephfusco.org/Articles/Blotch_Stain/Blotch_Stain.htmlhttp://www.josephfusco.org
http://joes-stuff1960.blogspot.com/
I'm not being facetious, but here's something to consider: http://tinyurl.com/2tfe65
ne sutor ultra crepidam
Man that was cold!
I have thought about that and I've done several pieces painted and distressed with much success but I'm hanging on ton the thought of salvaging this project. Thanks.
Sorry. It's just that I've rescued a couple of projects that seemed FUBAR that way.ne sutor ultra crepidam
Hey, sometimes you just gotta break out the paint brush and get busy....Tom Iovino
Tom's Workbench
http://tomsworkbench.com
I Read your article on thinning shellac and using it as a seal coat. I mixed it according to Jeff's formula and applied it last night. Will stain it with dye tonight to see if it works, Thanks
You might be surprised how well that works.. it prevents a lot of issues...Tom Iovino
Tom's Workbench
http://tomsworkbench.com
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