I am building a coffee table top out of bird’s eye maple. I want to remove some defects in the wood that are colored much darker than the rest of the wood before I glue up the table top and put finish on it. See attached pictures of the defects.
What is the best way to remove these defects?
Thanks.
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Replies
Ben,
That's not a defect....That's a beauty mark. Wood is a natural product and is not meant to be "perfect". Embrace the beauty mark and finish it the way it is.
Scott
Can you tell that to my perfectionist wife?
Tell her it is a perfect piece of wood.
You could use white paint.
Not to be mean to your wife, but remind her that Martha Stewart's headed for jail. Live a little, let nature be!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Generally I agree with the previous response. Maple does that sometimes. That's one way people can tell your table is real birdseye maple and not birdseye Formica.
You might be able to route them out and inlay a patch. If you're careful matching the grain and color, you can get a pretty inconspicuous repair.
Or you could use deliberately constrasting materials and whimsical shapes to make decorative inlays.
The only surface treatment I can think of that's likely to work is paint. Faux maple. That would require a real good color sense and fine brush work to make it look like the surrounding wood.
Defects? We call that character and get twice as much for it. Wormholes, nail holes extra cost as well. Recycled Lumber!
Those are mineral stains, and I doubt you'll have much luck getting rid of them. You could try either Oxalic acid or Peroxide based wood bleach. Please read and obey all safety precautions. You can grow new skin, but not eyes.
The only sure ways to get rid of them have already been mentioned(a decorative inlay, or a well-matched Dutchman), plus I'll add that you can rip the stained areas away, and add another board to your glue-up to make up the loss in overall width.
Ben,
"A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered", Henry David Thoreau said that and I believe it pertains to this discussion quite well. Rather than look at this mark or stain as a blemish, I, as previous posters have mentioned, would view this as an affirmation of the genuine properties of the material in which you choose to work. I don't see it as a flaw at all, rather as something to deal with, or in my case, not to deal with. Rather than viewing this "discoloration" as a defect, I would consider it an attribute to the authenticity of the material, or ####design oportunity. Birds-eye maple is rare, and it is better to exalt in it's beauty rather than curse its weakness.
J.P.
Edited 3/16/2004 5:56 pm ET by j.p.
Edited 3/16/2004 5:56 pm ET by j.p.
Those are common color characteristics of maple but I agree with your wife that they are too starkly contrasting to harmonize with the otherwise very blonde colors. I like to paint them over using mostly white to begin with and then a bit of light cream tone. I don't try to make them disappear. I just lighten them so that they blend and harmonize much better with the rest of the surface. A nice small brush is important as you must be able to work within the lines for this. I like to use acrylics because I am able to apply several coats in a short session. It is best to use several translucent coats mostly pigment with a dab of binder, gently approaching the desired look. After the color is looking good give it at least a day before overcoating with your clear finish. I recommend Golden "fluid" acrylics. I have also used artist's oils for this but the acrylics are easier and quicker. It sometimes helps to slightly roughen the surface of the dark spot with the tip of a knife (making many little scratches ... shallow and fine). This helps to get better coverage because some of these spots are pretty resinous and don't absorb much color otherwise ... the scratches give some tooth for the paint and done right, the paint pretty much fills the scratches up leaving a surface that can be easily smoothed out during the clearcoating process. Your goal should be to finish with a spot that is much lighter in color though still a bit darker than the average surface tone. You also want to have some natural looking patterning in it that seems to fit in with the existing grain. It is very difficult to cover all of the darkness without having a whitish looking spot so aim for a shadowy but indistinct spot ... rather than the sharply contrasting one that naturally appears.
perfectionist wife here.
I appreciate the concept of wood's natural beauty and flaws adding to its character and real-ness. I wish I could say that about my stretch marks, but it's still the first thing someone looking at my #### is going to notice.
as an artist & marketer, and therefore keen observer of human nature, I know that given its ultimate configuration, people would look at the table from a standing position then feel compelled to bend over & touch the dark spots. rather than appreciating the fine workmanship, I believe the small but very obvious imperfections would divert attention from the table as a whole. "what a shame" is the phrase that comes to mind... as in "what a shame that beautiful piece has to have that mark right there!" why settle for always being the first runner-up?
so, I thank you all for your opinions, but am going to continue my quest for the best combination of the two word phrase "natural beauty."
I'm going to give painting them a try. would it be okay to contact you off list about that?
have a good day folks. :o)
Perfectionist wife,
The first thing you would notice looking at your **** may be stretch marks, I can guarantee it wouldn't be for me, just like looking at your table. When I look at the pictures posted, I know right from the first glance it's a work of art produced with the help of mother nature, just like your ****. I wouldn't reach out to touch the dark areas because they are there, any more than I'd reach out to touch your stretchmarks because they're on your ****. I may touch them incidentally while admiring the complete object (talking table top now), but it would just be in appreciation of them, er it.
I've reconsidered. That wood is horrible! Please box it up and send it to me right away so I may dispose of it properly!
Perfect Wife,
I strongly suspect that, like my wife, you gave up on perfection shortly after the wedding vows were exchanged....lol. But this coffee table and its birdeye maple is a different story.
Anyone that responded to the table top marks the way you describe has a very uneducated opinion and you should not care about their opinion. On the contrary, a sophisticated individual would know and be impressed by those marks. Years ago I studied antiques and was toatally turned off by the early pine really ragged look...until I saw a room full of he stuff...and was so bulled over by its character..
The point is sophisticated taste is something that is developed and recognized by others. I don't ask a child to sip wine and tell me which is the best either..
You can have it anyway you like it, but be careful, you may be sending the wrong signal....
Wait a second! I too thought "defects? those look like interesting features to me", but one of the wonderful things about making your own furniture is that you can make it the way YOU want it. She wants to lighten the dark marks. I think there are things that would bleach it, and the trick would be to avoid damaging nearby wood. Paint to cover would best be added after at least one coat of clear finish, to allow you to get the paint only where you want it, without soaking in. I like the idea of a translucent lighter color layer. The other advantage is that this makes it easier to try again if you are not happy with your first try. A difficulty is that wood tends to change color as it ages (usually it darkens) and the painted color match may need to be adjusted later, something avoided with the initially more extreme solution of putting in a wood patch.
Ah, perfectionist wife, if that's who I'm responding to, I must admit the mineral stains didn't catch my eye as a problem.
The apparent thick glue lines (as they seem to be as seen on my monitor) between the boards did catch my eye, along with the possible end snipe visible in the pictures 100-0018 and 100-0015. Those two imperfections, if that happens to be the case could lead to joint failure-- which might be more of a problem than the wood colour, ha, ha. Slainte.RJFurniture
No problem. It will look fine once the Formica is glued down. Make sure to do both sides. That will also fix the problem that its flatsawn and has wide glue lines.
Dear Perfectionist Wife,
This is one of those discusions that go nowhere but I have to try. If the people for whom you are concerned will focus on nature's imperfections and then somehow equate as a reflect on you, I can not for the life of me see why you would even invite these people into your home or studio. As an artist, I would think you would embrace and celebrate the beauty of the wood as it is and not as a madison avenue concept of perfection. It is a sad comentary when formica perfection becomes a standard for art. I mean no disrespect but I am genuinely saddened to see a craftsman's efforts dumbed down because the an imperfect medium is not perfect.
Doug
I agree with you and your wife. I am building a 46" diameter curly maple coffee table and have the exact same problem. After carefully selecting the boards and laying them out for the circle (all of which had these mineral marks) I was able to get the whole thing mineral mark free except for one board with a mark about the same size as the one shown here.
My wife looked at it and said "get rid of it". I argued that it added character. Finally we both agreed to live with it rather than try to do a dutchman or paint it out. In retrospect, I wish I had chosen the boards so I had more of them randomly spaced out on the surface. Then it would not jump out as much.
In the final analysis I figure that if someone comes over and makes a big deal out of the mark rather than admiring the beautiful curl patterns and fine craftmanship, I will shrug it off and chalk it up to an amature opinion from a friend and nothing more.
If it happens to ever bother me while looking at it, I am going to just set my coffee mug right on the mark and go back to enjoying reading my wonderful new issue of finewoodworking while pondering my next project or new tool. :-)
Sorry to be of absolutely no help but wanted to let you know your not alone.
Scott
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