QSWO finishing question

[2beast]

I am building a craftsman or mission style vanity from QSWO..

My usual finish is dye, shellac, gel stain on and off and finish with shellac which always gives great results.

My question on this one..............

Besides using qswo, I am using some really figured pieces in the door panels.

I would really like to pop the grain on these panels.

Will the usual schedule work or should I maybe consider hitting them with some BLO to enhance the figure?

Thanks for any input

[JR1]

Nice wood! I'd use this technique to really accentuate the grain and then topcoat with a coat of shellac to protect the lower layer. Maybe orange but likely thai seed. But test and see what you like. Omit the seperate dye and gel stain and save some effort.

[Kansas City Fireslayer]

I don't think you'll loose any of the figure still using a dye. If you've ever seen curly maple finished with dye, it still pops very well. I have one very curly hard maple raised panel in my kitchen cabinets and they were finished with Charles Neil's blotch control, transtint in water, OB gel stain and then lacquer. The curl in that panel popped like crazy despite the blotch control solution. My uncle finished a QSWO table with dye followed by Minwax OB penetrating stain and the figure in the flecks is very prominent.

[fredhargis]

Oh, WOW! Those are really nice pieces. I think what you have been doing will work fine and accentuate the figure. It looks like there will be a little waste from the top of the boards, maybe you could test and see if it's what you want.

PS I really want to see a pic after they're done!

[2beast]

Thanks for the input guys
I will have a couple of cutoffs to practice on.

I will keep you posted as well

[jteneyck]

Late to the party. I would use dye and shellac, but not the gel stain on those panels. The dye will really accentuate the grain, but the stain won't add anything to them like it does by highlighting the pores in the QS frame.

John

[2beast]

Some test runs on the off cuts

[jteneyck]

So what did you do?

You would get more grain clarity if you add more finish coats, especially if you use gloss -shellac, lacquer, etc.

John

[cputnam]

To my eye, they all look good. Would love to know what you did to each panel.

[JR1]

They all look good, the piece on the right (the wood's right the picture's left) is the least impressive. I too am curious as to what you did. It's hard to judge from a picture over the 'net as my monitor does not reproduce the same color as yours unless both are calibrated to the same standard. There is also some washout as the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection so some excess light is washing out the lower part of the photo.