I’m currently building a cabinet that is veneered with highly figured English Sycamore. It’s the typical fiddleback figure. I’ve bookmatched this flitch veneer. I’m going to ebonize the wood then topcoat with lacquer. I can do either water based or traditional lacquer. My test boards show a distinct difference in color intensity (if one can refer to black as a color). I’m guessing this is due to the difference in face density between the compression and tension faces of the veneer. Is there any good method that will minimize the resulting striping effect? I’ve been trying a variety of techniques that all darken the wood but short of adding so much dye and stain that the figure all but disappears, I haven’t been totally successful.
Thanks for helping.
Jeff
Replies
Peter... did you see this post? Can you help?
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Yes I got your post. It usually takes me a few days to get to them.
You didn't mention what techniques you tried.
My first thought would be to use a water dye, nigrosine or ebony black, to dye the wood. The thing I like about using a dye that I mix myself from powder is I can make it to whatever strength I need. I use very hot water to mix it to get a saturated solution.
Do a test piece as you may not have to raise the grain. If it does fuzz a little, use the back of a piece of sand paper to burnish it back down.
Apply your dye, let dry, burnish if necessay and apply a thin wash coat of shellac. Give it a light sanding with 320 and re dye it. It may be what you are looking for.
Another technique would be to spray NGR dyes and then spray a sealer coat on.
Beware of pigmented stains as they will definately obscure the grain.
Another way that used to be employed for good fast blacks was to use an extract of logwood. This however takes some practice.
You can also use a trans tint in your lacquer to help deepen the look without going opaque
Let me know how you do.
Peter
Peter,Thanks for the reply. Yea, I've tried a variety of things so far. They all center around the use of water dyes first followed by stain. The dye alone seems to accentuate the striping effect between strips of veneer. This is a bookmatch layup. By having to flip alternate flitches the compression/tension sides also alternate. So the dye absorbs into the less dense face more than the other. Thus unevenness between flitches. The use of stain over the dye seems to even things out a bit, but not entirely. I haven't yet tried an initial seal coat of shellac or whatever prior to the dye. Might that be something to try?I'm beginning to think there is not perfect solution... that is, I simply cannot make it all look perfectly uniform. And that's probably OK. I'd still appreciate any further tips you may have now that my predicament has been made a bit clearer. (I hope it's clearer... like thin mud as opposed to that sticky gumbo mud, maybe???)Jeff
Jeff,
A few things,
A medium strength dye, let dry and give it a light sanding with 320 and re dye.
You can also dye, give a light sanding followed by a very thin wash coat and then dye again.
Another option is to seal the raw wood, sand and then shoot some thin coats NGR or tinted lacquer almost like airbrushing.
There is also the optical factor to consider. As you know when you flip any piece of figured wood the the look changes.
Finishing can be so interesting eh?
Peter
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