Maple tables disaster...blotchy finish.

[Danny in Houston]

Quilted maple, oil and top coat.

[Duane N]

Duane, did you stain it? Maple is notorious to blotch with stain, actually a lot of the "whitewoods" or paler woods can blotch with stain. Some pre-treat with a filler, or shellac.

Plenty of info online about blotch control of Maple, whitewoods

I agree with others, Shellac, and a top coat. Oil and a top coat, even dye and a top coat, but stain pigment just lays on top, hardly any penetration. A lesson learned. Any time you put time into work, check your intended finish on some scrap first, if that isn't right, no biggie.

I agree with John. Use a stripper on the entire piece. I've been finding the "citrus strippers" are very good, and extremely cost effective. HF has some low priced "tooth brush" like brushes, in steel, brass, and nylon, for getting into details. Cheap enough you just pitch them after use. An assortment of sponges, rough if you can find them, and a paint scraper for straight flat parts, and a big honking plastic tub to do the work in, you can keep re-dipping the stripper that falls of. Rubber gloves like your Mom used in the Kitchen, and jump on in. Ohhhh eyewear/googles is a HUGE plus, and if you are a mouth breather a dust mask, tastes terrible, but if you breathe it in, you could be toast, swallowing isn't advisable either.

I used Transtint/water to try to dye the wood to the color I was after....I should have held off doing this because at the time I was in a hurry to finish the tables.  Definitely a lesson learned so now when I feel I'm not in the mood to work on something I don't force myself to work on it....I put it off to the side and come back to it later.  I have the coffee table and legs that still have the Transtint on them so I will try a stripper to remove the dye.  I'll start on the bottom side of the coffee table top first to see how the wood reacts to the stripper.  Thank you.

OK, you've confirmed I misinterpreted your intent when you said you wanted to make it darker.  The color change you are looking for is really nothing more than happens when you put most any OB varnish on maple.  Arm-R-Seal is about the lightest, P&L 38 a little more amber, and Waterlox darker still.  In the end, getting an exact match is usually a fool's errand, I should know.  It takes many, many, many, get the idea, many test specimens to develop a finish recipe for a perfect match, if there even is such a thing.  And you could have two pieces made at the same time, with the same wood, and finished identically.  Side by side they will look like twins.  Separate them by 10 feet and they likely won't.  Close is good enough most of the time.  

John

I'm learning a lot reading the replies and suggestions I'm getting and I appreciate the advice.  I wish I knew a lot more than I do but the learning experience and practice is going to help me in the future.  I'm approaching this like I approached photography....use every opportunity as a learning experience and don't get frustrated at your failures...use them to learn what not to do in the future.  Thank you.

Quilted maple, oil and top coat.

Beautiful and I like the contrast of the different woods used in both pieces and you gave me an idea what I want to do when I start building my kitchen cabinets.

[Steve N]

Duane, thanks for the reply. My experience with blotchy Maple has just been with stains, which don't penetrate, just color the top surface, so a stripper will work there. Analine dyes are a whole different animal. They do penetrate and DYE the wood, so you need color removal. I guess I have been lucky as to have never had an analine water based dye blotch on me.

Jeff Jewitt has a good article here about using bleaches to remove color, go down to "color removal" and take a read.

As with anything to do with finishes, take your time, and start on an inconspicuous part of the project, or even using scrap dyed as you did the project parts.

[Duane N]

Quilted maple, oil and top coat.

Danny I just wanted you to know I shared this picture of this table on my Facebook page and you got a lot of compliments on the table and the craftsmanship involved making it.
  You said the table was finished with "oil".  Being new to woodworking what kind of oil did you use?  Tung oil?

Duane, thanks for the reply. My experience with blotchy Maple has just been with stains, which don't penetrate, just color the top surface, so a stripper will work there. Analine dyes are a whole different animal. They do penetrate and DYE the wood, so you need color removal. I guess I have been lucky as to have never had an analine water based dye blotch on me.

Jeff Jewitt has a good article here about using bleaches to remove color, go down to "color removal" and take a read.

As with anything to do with finishes, take your time, and start on an inconspicuous part of the project, or even using scrap dyed as you did the project parts.

Thank you for the link on bleaching the wood.  I will try to pick some up today and see if it works on the table legs.

[Danny in Houston]

Danny I just wanted you to know I shared this picture of this table on my Facebook page and you got a lot of compliments on the table and the craftsmanship involved making it.
  You said the table was finished with "oil".  Being new to woodworking what kind of oil did you use?  Tung oil?


Thank you for the link on bleaching the wood.  I will try to pick some up today and see if it works on the table legs.

Thanks for the compliment.  This table was my first piece of fine furniture, I made it in 2004 I think.  I used linseed oil with Deft lacquer top coat.  I typically soak the wood sanded to about 120 grit with oil, and progressively up the sanding grit up to 600 grit wet with oil. I wipe the oil dry with a cotton cloth and then a final wet sanding with 0000 fine steel wool, followed by a final vigorous rubbing with a cotton cloth (old T-shirt) to sorta polish the damp oil into the wood.  Always wipe the oil dry after an hour, and add a clear top coat.

PS -Linseed oil is also known as flax seed oil, and lots of people place a value on using non-toxic finishes on wood.  You could use shellac, also non-toxic, as a top coat, but it's not very water proof.  I use shellac on nice pieces that don't need water proofing.

[Duane N]

Thanks for the compliment.  This table was my first piece of fine furniture, I made it in 2004 I think.  I used linseed oil with Deft lacquer top coat.  I typically soak the wood sanded to about 120 grit with oil, and progressively up the sanding grit up to 600 grit wet with oil. I wipe the oil dry with a cotton cloth and then a final wet sanding with 0000 fine steel wool, followed by a final vigorous rubbing with a cotton cloth (old T-shirt) to sorta polish the damp oil into the wood.  Always wipe the oil dry after an hour, and add a clear top coat.

PS -Linseed oil is also known as flax seed oil, and lots of people place a value on using non-toxic finishes on wood.  You could use shellac, also non-toxic, as a top coat, but it's not very water proof.  I use shellac on nice pieces that don't need water proofing.

Thank you for the detail explanation on what oil you used and how you applied it.  Again, beautiful piece of furniture.  I get inspired a lot with what I see posted here on a regular basis.