Sanding sealer and stain

[Woody 1]

I am making a Shaker table with walnut sides, top and drawer fronts and mahogney for the legs and fram work. Can I use sanding sealer and keep staining it until it gets close to the same color or just have it look like two kinds of wood and let it go like that ? Barry

[Sawduster]

If you want all of the wood to look like one type, I'd use all one type of wood. That being said, if you're staining the walnut, I don't think there is a need for the sanding sealer. Those are generally applied to seal off areas of particular woods that have a tendency to blotch. Blotching occurs where areas of the wood absorb more stain due to the grain being more open in some areas that others. The sealer gets into those areas and seals them so that they don't drink up a bunch of stain. You need to sand with a sanding block to remove most of the sealer from the surface of the wood to allow penetration, leaving the sealer deeper in those areas it penetrated.

You can, I guess, continue adding stain to the mahogany to get it darker, but the grain of the mahogany is going to be quite obviously different from that of the walnut.

[Woody 1]

I think your right Jerry, mahogney won`t pass for walnut no matter what you do so I will just go with two different types of wood and see how it turns out. I don`t ever get one of those great looking finishes like some of you do, I AM ALWAYS WANTING TO START ON SOMETHING ELSE. Barry

[JBark]

>I think your right Jerry, mahogney won`t pass for walnut no
>matter what you do so I will just go with two different
>types of wood and see how it turns out. I don`t ever get one
>of those great looking finishes like some of you do, I AM
>ALWAYS WANTING TO START ON SOMETHING ELSE. Barry

But walnut might be passable for mahogany. A company I used to work for was not happy with the available mahogany so they would stain the walnut to look like mahogany. I wasn't with them then so I don't know how they did it but I know walnut can be lightened with acids and bleach easily. From there it should not be impossible to match the color of a mahogany. In the end they have similar porousity so they should look pretty close.

John

[Sawduster]

Or, like the French say, "Vive la difference" Play up the difference in the two.

Or maybe find someone to trade some of one for some of the other. If I remember correctly, you're going through your scrap bin trying to use up some wood before restocking.

[Woody 1]

Well I am going to make three, the first was all mahogney and the second is about half done its the one that is mahogney and walnut and the third will be walnut. One winter I made six chest with 4 drawers and the last one had so many kinds of wood I ended up painting it gray. I think it will turn out ok either way but one I think I will do it one way and then I change my mind. I made one chest out of walnut and it was 50% sap wood and I dyed it dark mahogney and you could not tell where the sap wood was but it was all walnut. If it turns out ok I will post it but if it don`t you won`t see it. Barry