Replies

1. 
   oldusty | Mar 24, 2008 07:14am | #1

     T.T.

              If you are making a piece for a client you can offer your expert advice , but ultimately it's up to the person paying .

         Years ago most things we made were stained in some form of  a Walnut stain , then in the last say 20 years paint was in , then natural clear finishes were the rage . Faux and glazed are on the edge and paint is back in .

        We did the pastel finishes like White wash / pickled and tinted . Now I have done many variations of the color Red in recent years . A year ago we toured the homes at Portland Oregons street of dreams and to my surprise the majority of the cabinets were painted and Faux / Glazed , few were stained .

      After the traditional training during my apprenticeship  at a restoration and reproduction shop it seemed there was little artistic personality in most older pieces with the exception of some very fine veneer Marquetry that was like art .

       I now do crave and love contrasting colors of woods .

      Interestingly enough I just put a bid together for a client that I did a kitchen for about 8 years ago for a home they are building in Hawaii , the cabinet faces and door and drawer frames will be Black Walnut and the panels will be Mango veneer. The Mango is like flaming Yellowish with Blackish dark streaking , very dramatic.

            so , imho contrast is good on some projects if for nothing else for embellishment when needed like hardware knobs and pulls .

                      regards   dusty

2. 
   Jfrostjr | Mar 24, 2008 03:56pm | #2

   Let me differentiate, in this case, between "stain" - a pigmented colorant, and "dye" - a penetrating, non-pigmented colorant.

   We all know that "stain" is responsible for blotching on many types of wood. "Dye" is far less prone to blotching, yet it produces equivalent coloring effects.

   Therefore, why is "stain" even in our finishing cabinets?

   Frosty

   "I sometimes think we consider the good fortune of the early bird and overlook the bad fortune of the early worm." FDR - 1922

1. 
   TampaTom | Mar 24, 2008 04:45pm | #3

   I'd be willing to wager the reason we don't have more dye is because the folks at Minwax have a huge ad budget, and the big-box stores carry it to the exclusion of any other types of product...Tom Iovino

   Tom's Workbench

   http://tomsworkbench.com

2. 
   oldusty | Mar 24, 2008 05:57pm | #4

   hiya Frosty ,

            Stains get grouped into a large category . The trouble we had when we used to use an industrial fast wipe as it was called (it was really a dye of sorts) was we would get bleed back out of the pores from the wood especially species like Red Oak.

       As far as stains some are called penetrating some are called wiping and they are much different at least in the Old Masters brand that I use . They also make what they call deep penetrating stains which are more intense , not opaque but will stain the wood the true color you use .

           dusty