Antique Walnut Finish ?

[Rob Young]

The White Ash I have worked with looks more like Red Oak. Since WA is cheap, I use it for shop projects and experiment with dyes and stains on it. I could not pass it off as Walnut. I had to make something for mom to match a Walnut Tea Cart. Just a open ended box to raise her micro wave that sits on the cart. I used Poplar with some medium brown dye and then a light Walnut Stain to match the tea cart, cant till the the difference.

Yep, fiddled around with dyes on white ash for much the same reason. Haven't dug into the project big time but the ash is cheaper than red oak here and I'm wanting mostly rift-sawn material so there will be more waste than usual.  

Ash with "golden oak" dye mix & filled grain w/ dyed plaster of paris


Messed around with some other dye color blends too.

[Scoony]

Well got some more clarifications today. She likes the warms browns, but not necessarily the grain. After calculating lumber pricing, walnut may still be an option. Will only be about $70 difference. I am going to test out that stain on different woods to give her a better idea. Seems that pocket door hardware will be a bigger cost factor.

[Scoony]

So a continuation of the original question. The console is being built from walnut and is progressing along nicely. Further conversations with the customer and she wants warm browns without any reds or oranges. I think that garnet shellac may be out. I will also need to blend the plywood panels into the rest of the wood as the panels are a bit lighter. So what I am considering is a rub down with BLO, seal with seal coat, glaze with either GF antique walnut get stain, or vandyke glaze. The seal coat will allow me to adjust the glaze effects. Top coat with a water-based product.

Or I could stain with the gel stain, seal, glaze, top coat. I will make up some sample boards before doing any finishing.

Any suggestions on keeping the walnut brown and avoiding red/orange hues?

[MikeBob]

Hit it with a medium brown dye, Trans Tint or one of there others.
http://www.joewoodworker.com/transtints-colors.htm

[jteneyck]

Scoony, definitely play around on scrap.  Whenever I've used BLO on walnut I get reds, so I don't think you're going to want to do that.  Transtint dark walnut may be a good choice if you need to add depth while avoiding red.  You can always use green Transtint if you have any reds you don't want as it will tint reds to brown.  

john

[Scoony]

Thanks for the ideas. I have used lots of dyes in the past, going to look at some colors and give them a try.

[Rob Young]

Scoony, definitely play around on scrap.  Whenever I've used BLO on walnut I get reds, so I don't think you're going to want to do that.  Transtint dark walnut may be a good choice if you need to add depth while avoiding red.  You can always use green Transtint if you have any reds you don't want as it will tint reds to  brown.  

john

I've only used it a few times, but darned if it didn't work.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001FB...UTF8&psc=1

Color theory is interesting stuff.