How to pick stains for desired effect?
What I want to know is as a rule of thumb will a dark stain on a light wood either make the grain stand out more or less than a light stain would and the same for a dark piece of wood.
Can some one brake this down with a simple chart or something like;
dark stain dark wood – grain will stand out more/less?
dark stain light wood – grain will stand out more/less?
light stain dark wood – grain will stand out more/less?
light stain light wood – grain will stand out more/less ?
medium stains and wood color will mute grain pattens?
I’m working on a parquet type table top that contains several species of hardwoods including jatoba, mahogany, red oak, walnut, White oak, and maple. I realize each type will accept the same stain differently but that will be okay.
I want to use three contrasting stain colors, one maybe as dark as ebony, one a natural or golden oak, and the third maybe a cherry or red sedona.
I have divided all the cut pieces I’m using into three categories without regard to the wood species but the actual characteristics of the individual piece. one set contains all the pieces lightest in color mainly with the straightest tightest grains. The second set are all the darkest colored pieces with little grain patten or “speckled” the way quarter sawn sycamore looks. The third batch are all medium shaded and have the most interesting grains that are wavy or cut from near a branch or knot.
Thanks
Replies
I've only done a little staining, but the type of wood and type of stain seem to me to be the keys. Certain woods (eg, birch) accept stain very poorly, others (oak) very well. And some stains soak in very rapidly, while others just lay on the surface and rub off easily.
You can use a sealer of some sort on very porous wood to make it accept the stain more gradually and evenly.
If all else fails and the wood will not darken you can use a gel stain (really a sort of translucent paint) to achieve the color you want, if not the grain effect.
But mostly it's trial and error (and mostly error).
grain pattern and pore structure have a lot more to do with whether or not the grain stands out. Stain choice too, but not in the way you are thinking. A stain made entirely of pigments, which most are, you can say that that makes grain stand out more because the pigments lodge into the pores of the early wood and late wood differently, thereby creating contrast.
But then you'd get into looking at dyes, and while typically they do color more evenly since the particle size is smaller, you'd also discover a number of "exceptions" to the rule where the dye is used specifically to make the grain stand out.
Saying that a pigment stain will make the grain stand out more than dye is a good rule of thumb though, and does tend to apply to the majority of things your average joe would undertake. Dyes get used more and more on all kinds of woods, even though in the past they were a specialty thing used for wild and unpredictable grains, or to prevent an undesired degree of un-evenness in a wood, aka blotch, such as with pine or cherry. I say they're more mainstream now because you used to only have one readily available brand on the shelf that had any dye content to it, Valspar I believe, and now you can walk into a Sherwin or Diamond, and probably other paint venues, and they have dye colorants in the machine with the pigment bases.
As an aside, I hate staining pine. But had a customer who really wanted pine trim. My subtle hints towards considering other alternatives were rebuffed. Used Sherwins Xylene stain base with dye colorants. Man was that ever a good call. Fast, for starters, because it dries in minutes, and even.
Really, if theres a look that you're after, nothing beats experimentation. Years ago when I became fascinated with all the possibilities of finishing, I read about every book I could get my hands on. I still have several. If you're in to nosing through books, I'd recommend a couple as a good overall snapshot. One is Flexner's Understanding Wood Finishing. The second is by Michael Dresdner, The New Wood Finishing Book. Neither are doctoral write ups, but good, well rounded, casually written, easily understandable . . . with lots of pictures!
Good luck.
Real trucks dont have sparkplugs
Here's a couple pics of the project for a better idea of what I'm going for.
The lighter pieces, mostly variations of oak with tight grains I would just assume mute the grain pattens. The pieces parallel to the light ones have the wild grains I really want to jump out. Than the darker pieces that are turned different from the others I want to pretty much preserve as they are, these are the ones that are jatoba and something else I haven't been able to figure out that is incredibly dense and has consistent grain widths like oak but wavy and the end grain is dotted like the jatoba is.
I'll be using old fashion minwax oil base, after a damp wipe of the pieces to open the pores, when dry followed by a 50% diluted sanding sealer, followed by one coat of a gel stain to create a uniform tone to the whole table top, (same method in last months issue about finishing wood floors) and than a 1/2" crystal clear epoxy to really exaggerate the 3D effect of the patten.
pics are just of the top loose fit, I still need to do a finial dry fit, and even sand, before collecting all the pieces in order and staining individually before than gluing.
If you want to obscure the grain of the oak, definately have a look at dyes, or at the very least, a gel stain.
The irregular grains, I don't know what it is, but I'd try a dye on a scrap and see what it does, I'd also try a pigment for comparison, I'd also try just straight boiled linseed. One of the three will probably give you something you'll be happy with.
If I made something like that top, I'd have to make 3. I'd spend so much time playing around with finishes I'd burn through 2 just in experiments. Real trucks dont have sparkplugs
For the dial-uppers.
The main consideration is whether the stain is a "penetrating" stain or not, and what type of wood is being stained. Woods like pine have very hard growth rings and relatively soft areas between them. A penetrating stain will darken the soft areas a great deal, while leaving the growth rings nearly unchanged. A non-penetrating stain is a much better choice for this type of wood.
You also want to investigate dyes. Some of these are designed to really make the grain stand out.
George Patterson