Trouble Staining Maple- Email Question of the Week

March 14, 2007 | Filed Under Blog, Question of the Week 

This week’s question comes from Darin. He writes:

I am trying to finish maple to a brown appearance. I am using a dewaxed shelac as a sanding sealer and this imparts a slightly amber tone to the wood and when I apply the col. maple gel stain I get an orange tone wood instead of the brown I would like. Is there a method that you use to obtain a brown tone finish instead of the orange one I am getting.

And here was my reply:

“Hey Darin. What cut of shellac are you using? You just might be sealing the surface a bit too much, so you aren’t getting the color change you should be. Also, be sure to use a blonde shellac since that emparts little to no color at all. Do a few tests on scrap to find what works for you. I would probably recommend a 1/2lb cut to a 1 lb cut. Now if that stain still isnt dark enough, then you might want to move to a darker gel stain. The gel stain will sit on the surface more and will allow you to more effectively change the color without depending on stain absorption. Rockler has a great selection of gel stains that I use frequently. Also, if you have a spray setup, you could always use a dye mixture to get a nice even brown color. Let me know if you need more info on that method. ”

For those of you who don’t know, maple is a tricky wood to stain. It tend to absorb stain unevenly which leads to a blotchy look. By pre-sealing the wood with shellac, you can even out the color absorption. This is exactly what Darin was trying to do.

Comments

4 Responses to “Trouble Staining Maple- Email Question of the Week”

  1. Stan Armstrong on March 14th, 2007 10:11 am

    Does anyone have experience using a dye stain rather than a pigment stain on maple?

  2. thewoodwhisperer on March 15th, 2007 7:41 am

    NF emailed me this advice:

    I agree with the sage advice that you gave Darin. Sounds like maybe he used too heavy a cut of shellac in his sanding sealer. I use a much-thinned cut, about 1/2 lb or less, and use scraps to determine if the particular boards need an additional coat of sealer (usually
    they do not). I try to use the least amount of shellac that will give me the “anti-splotch” result when I apply stain. Depending on what stain I am using, I may need to use a second or even a third application of stain to get the final look. That is, it may take a “primer” coat of stain to serve as a base for the final”color” coat. Also, the stain needs to be thoroughly mixed before application, in order to get the colorants uniformly distributed in the stain. Sometimes, I ‘ve been in a hurry and did not mix the stain and later found that some of the colorant had settled to the bottom of the container, giving me a much different result than I expected. The stain has to be uniformly mixed.

    If one has more scraps and time to experiment, it may be that some dye could be added to the thinned shellac that would enrich the final look when the stain is applied. In Darin’s case, from the “orange” tone he describes, maybe a slight amount of blue-green, green, or yellow-green tint in the shellac sanding sealer would produce the brown color he wants in the finished (pun intended) product. His test boards would determine which combination is best for his case. As a final note, commercial stains are often shown with photos of how the stain looks on pine and other woods. Each wood and each tree has its own behavior, so Darin might need to use a blend of two stains to achieve the final “custom” color he wants. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Have fun with woodworking.

  3. Thad on March 20th, 2007 8:40 am

    Did something similar with maple, but used a diluted brown transtint dye in water prior to the shellac. Came out brown instead of orange.

  4. Darin on March 23rd, 2007 7:14 pm

    I was able to use a medium brown dye to slightly color the blond toned maple and then applied a 1lb cut of shellac and then my gel stain and the results were what I wanted. I wiped on the dye and I can see why you recommended spraying this it can be a little tricky.

    Darin

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