Curly Maple Finish Schedule

The finish schedule for the curly maple jewelry cabinet is below .... I make no claims of repeatability here. Everyone will get different results from this recipe; slightly different results each time. It lends a certain anxiety to the process but it is something, I think, that makes our furniture stand out a bit from the crowd, ... ... We mix the basic colors as Lockwood advises, one ounce by weight to one quart of warm water, which represent the full strength stains mentioned below. Over time, the colors can increase in strength through evaporation. It is totally required that you make a complete, good size finish sample all the way through inlcuding varnishes and gel stains with all stain/water ratios carefully noted before moving on to staining and finishing a whole piece of furniture.

1st coat lockwood light golden brown walnut (4 to 5 parts water to 1 part stain), brushed on, sponged off to raise the grain.

That is sanded pretty good when dry with 150 or 180 3m 216U or equivalent. At this point you can still fix defects that come to light as you sand. Recoat and resand lightly if necessary.

A 2nd coat of dye is then applied ( 1 part standard brown walnut + 1 part american walnut to 8 parts water.

Do not sand that coat of stain, but when dry, apply the first coat of gloss varnish (Minwax fast
dry poly) Brush on a nice wet coat with a foam brush and leave it in a dust free place if you have one.

We sand that lightly with 400 wet or dry and then in this case, we applied another coat of the dilute light golden brown walnut over everything because it didn't look 'quite right' to us at that point, compared to the original sample. That doesn't move the color much, but it is noticeable ...
Brush it on, sponge it off. At this point you should be getting a good idea of the finished color.

Then we use a minwax aged oak gel stain and after at least a 24 hr dry time, apply a second coat of minwax fast dry poly SATIN, again with a foam brush.

That is sanded very lightly with 1000 grit wet and dry 3M, and topcoated with a mix of poly and linseed oil, wiped on, wiped off, completely dry ... 3 poly, one oil or thereabouts ...

After that, the cabinet was reassembled and the hardware was installed...

Not fast, totally subjective, but in my opinion, it's where the Art lives.

Before starting, also please read this blog entry ...
target="_blank"http://dorsetcustomfurniture.blogspot.com/2009/12/mysteries-and-art-of-finishing.html

Here is another stain link with other info ...