I am designing a set of bathroom pieces, one of which requires turned legs. The client wants the pieces built with quarter sawn white oak, and the suppliers of turned legs use only red oak. So, my question is this: Is there a relatively straightforward process for reducing or eliminating the color differences between white and red oak? Custom turned legs are not economically feasible. I would also be interested in a process for simulating a fumed finish with aniline dyes and/or stains.
Thanks for your help. Tom.
Replies
Fixxing Red Oak
Becuase the color of red oak and white oak vary so much, you'll have to experiemnt a bit to get it just right, but insome cases, where I've needed to remove some of the pink out of the Red oak, and bring it a little more brown, I've had success by spraying it with a little green toner. It sounds bizarre, but it's just basic color theory - Green combines with red, to produce brown.
Of course, you could stain/dye the entire piece, and wouldn't have an issue either.
Hope this helps
Fixing red oak
Gregory,
Thanks for your reply. I have some green aniline dye and will give it a shot. I enjoyed your work as seen in articles and your web site.
Best regards, Tom.
Tom,
Basic color theory states green kills red. If you were to hit some red oak with green be sure and use a very light touch as the green will show as GREEN in very short order.
Dyes are great for unifying a ground color. Here's an alternative. Dye both the red and white oak with a greenish yellow. Lockwood medium yellow maple fits the bill for that. You could add a dash of green to this if you'd like. Dye everything the same. Now stain with a colortype of your choice. An example would be General Finishes Brown Mahogany gel stain. This color is a deep burnt umber with a dash of a red to warm it a little more. Once you get a finish on, you'll find that other than the distinct difference in grain pattern, they will look the same from a color stand point. Of course you should do a few sets of samples so you can tweak things.
Let me know how you do.
Peter
Basic color theory
Hi, Peter,
Thanks for your help on this problem. I will be building these projects in September and will let you know the results.
How soon does hockey season begin for old farts?
Best regards, Tom.
Funny guy........ I play all summer with a group that has an average age of 19 - 25, mostly college kids.I'm sure they think the same way you do until they get robbed on a breakaway. You should hear some of the things that come out of their mouths! Music to my ears.
Next time I'll tell you dye it with ox blood and then finish it with a 13 combination of motor oil, hydraulic fluid and J7 jet fuel.
Keep me posted.
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