staining maple

[oakey]

made a small table for a friend to hold a coffee cup out of maple used some clear cut offs to practice staining it the color he wanted my test pieces came out good
then i stained the table it has some very figured wood and those areas are blotchy
i have poor luck getting the stain to work when i use pre stain conditioners so i omitted that step
i get away with just staining oak all the time but the maple looks awful
any fix besides making a new one ? I have not finished it yet i do not think sanding will help
also is there a Finnish that holds up to hot cups being set on it ?
thanks oakey

[Splinter Puller]

My wife wanted our new kitchen cabinets to be dark stained maple !?!? (She liked the dark but wanted little grain to show).   I did a pretty good job by spraying the sanded maple with a spit coat of shellac and then spraying on light coats of alcohol diluted aniline dye to get the dark color.  I then followed up spraying on water borne varnish.   Turned out great.  The key points are the dye dries on contact so it does not have time to soak in and blotch.  

Note, I used a 20 dollar conversion gun on my compressor so practically anyone can afford to spray finish with this equipment.

[jteneyck]

My wife wanted our new kitchen cabinets to be dark stained maple !?!? (She liked the dark but wanted little grain to show).   I did a pretty good job by spraying the sanded maple with a spit coat of shellac and then spraying on light coats of alcohol diluted aniline dye to get the dark color.  I then followed up spraying on water borne varnish.   Turned out great.  The key points are the dye dries on contact so it does not have time to soak in and blotch.  

Note, I used a 20 dollar conversion gun on my compressor so practically anyone can afford to spray finish with this equipment.

This is your best approach.  Maple, pine, poplar, cherry, and a few other woods blotch when stains and dyes are applied by hand.  The approach SP outlines above is about the only way I've found to avoid the problem.  I don't spray shellac first however.  Straight dye spray, water or alcohol based, won't blotch as long as you don't spray more than the wood can absorb.  The same process works with a spray stain, although I've never used one.  

The $9 HF purple gun sprays dye great.  

John

As for a finish that will stand up to hot cups, water, etc., Arm-R-Seal is pretty darned good. Waterlox would work equally well.

[oakey]

thanks SP and John
i have a couple of those purple spray guns as i use them all the time spraying finish just never tried stains or dyes
i hardly ever make stuff from maple use it for secondary some times just decided that the project at hand was a place to use some
work with red oak a lot it stains very consistent
And i use cherry a lot i am more careful to use sealers i have learned the hard way on cherry and blotches
i will have to try spraying stain when there is a next time
i have a lot of figured soft maple might be fun to use some up in ways that show rather than secondary wood

[jteneyck]

thanks SP and John
i have  a couple of those purple spray guns as i use them all the time spraying finish just never tried stains or dyes
i hardly ever make stuff from maple use it for secondary some times just decided that the project at hand was a place to use some
work with red oak a lot it stains very consistent
And  i use cherry a lot i am more careful to use sealers  i have learned the hard way on cherry and blotches
i will have to try spraying stain when there is a next time
i have a lot  of figured soft maple might be fun to use some up in ways that show rather than secondary wood

Oak is such an easy wood to stain.  Maple is the complete opposite.  With your current project you would have to sand it back to bare wood and then start again.  

If you want to spray stain you should get a spray/no-wipe stain.  SW's makes several different ones.  GF's WB Dye Stain can also be used as a spray/no-wipe.  

What would be considered blotching with unfigured maple is prized by many with the figured flavors like curly, birds eye, etc.  This is one case where highlighting the grain looks good.  Not a requirement, by any means, but it can look spectacular when done with a little restraint.  

John