I'm using curly maple to accent a project I'm making for a Christmas gift, so this video hit at a perfect time! Great info, especially the tip to run it through the planer at an angle.
I always learn so much information from your video work! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Fiddleback... I never knew “why” it had that name. Have a really nice Thanksgiving! Detroit says hi.
Really nicely done video and presentation bout curly maple. It's all in the compression. Shellac is awesome, so versatile, especially when top coating with water based products. (nice lil rhythm guitar thing at the end)
I know the video is 2 years old Mark but you had exactly the answer I was looking for when it comes to finishes. I'm going to be making some keepsake boxes in the future and some of them will be walnut and curly maple. I was planning on dewaxed shellac for the finish and wasn't 100% sure about using spray lacquer over top of it. I definitely will get a few more cans of Watco lacquer to use on them as well after watching this.
I realize that this video is 2 years old but I've only now just come across it and am working with curly maple building small speaker cabinets. I was looking at finishing using shellac as you suggested but then came across Osmo PolyX and decide to use that instead. The finish is amazing and is slightly lighter than shellac and really easy to apply.
One tip for jointing/planing highly figured woods of any type, using sharp helical carbide inserted cutter heads DO work significantly better. Far less chip out (I almost never get any chip out), far less waste, far smoother finish (less time cutting, less time sanding). A sharper, more positive rake angle, taking light cuts, no matter the cutter type, also helps.
I just bought nine board feet (1"" X 12" X 9'). After watching this, I am wondering why I bought it. Neither my skills nor my woodshop can do the board justice. But thank you so much for this video. Whatever I end up with, I will at least know what mistakes are possible and probable and will try to avoid them.
Another finish i like to do for highly figured woods (although not cheap) is painting on a light coat of epoxy resin with a foam brush. It really makes the figure pop and because it is a thicker film finish, it adds some visual depth to the curl too. I found this out when I had a little left in a bottle of tabletop resin and decided to paint it on a piece I had just finished for the next project.
Such a great and timely video! I just picked up a length of curly maple to make some gifts and have been eyeballing those dyes I bought a while ago. For bright, saturated dye colors like blue, purple, or red, I recommend checking out the videos done by people refinishing guitars. Curly maple seems to be the perfect wood for dye.
If you really want to pop with those bright colors try this. Dye the curly black 3 or 4 times with sanding it off between coats. Then use the blue, purple, red, etc. It makes the curls dark and really pop. I did all of the equipment (subs, racks, speaker stands) in my home theater this way with Transtint black and purple and they came out amazing. I wanted a darker purple so the last black round I didn't sand completely off, brought it down to more of a light gray so that the purple would be darker on top. Looks amazing and exactly what I wanted for this room.
@@DesertILI That sounds great. I'm probably going to start off small since I lack any real way to machine the maple completely flat and will likely just cut the 'good' and highly figured sections from the board I have. I'm thinking some nice trays or boxes. Maybe some splines dyed with complementary colors or such. Lots of possibilities.
@@jaymzx0 Oh, and one more tip. Use a good wax after finishing. It really adds depth. When I posted pictures of my surround sound stands on the DIY channel at work someone asked me how I made them look so 3D.
@@jaymzx0 The linseed oil should work well. I had done all of my pieces with a tung oil varnish like what was used in the video with wax over them. Looked great. I'm working on another set of speaker stands now and actually did the first coat of finish with linseed last night. I was out of the tung that I was using so gave it a shot. So far so good. The first coat is still curing but it looks close to the other pieces.
Watching all of your wood comparison videos - getting a custom table soon and they use ash wood for the whole table including the top. I love the look of it, but have been seeing oak it better for durability and better moisture resistance. Please give me some advice - I have little ones and this table will be used a bunch and I don't want to have it get super ruined. Thank you :) Happy holidays!
In that situation I would say the finish is what is pretty important for longevity. Oak or ash, both great durable woods. You just neeed a good finish to keep it looking good over the years
Just purchased a raw, unfinished rifle stock with fiddleback maple. I want the figures to POP and end up with a very durable, super glossy finish. Do you have a video to teach that process? Fantastic video, by the way! Thanks!
Hey Mark, thank you for the video. I always benefit from your videos. I built a couple of boxes last year with curly maple and I was really pleased with how they turned out. The wood was spectacular and I finished it with general finishes water based poly rather than arm-r-seal. Anyway, it was the first time I used it, I think it is called high performance, and I was really pleased to avoid the amber effect of oil. First question is does applying shellac and then oil keep out the amber? Also, I my second upcoming project is to build a box for crayons and coloring books. I want to use curly maple and I want to dye each face a different color, like crayons but I want to look like a guitars with that bright color and perfect finish. Do you have suggestions on making those bright colors? I expect that I will have to dye and top coat before cutting the dovetails but I have never any fancy coloring before. / I built two tables last year with walnut and I took your advise and dyed them first with brown walnut and then put on a coat dark walnut danish oil before several layers of arm-r-seal and they look amazing (and so far no signs of going blond)
Question on Card Scrapers: I have never used one or even looked at getting one, but it sounds like I might want to do so. Are they all pretty much the same or is there a brand or two you would recommend? Thanks!
You will need to get the proper equipment to sharpen your card scraper, a file, a file holder a stone and a burnisher. Card scrapers are fantastic on figured wood, brings out their beauty like nothing else.
Would you use something like the dewaxed shellac (prestain conditioner) on curly maple, lightly sand it down and then use a dye on the wood to even out the dye? Or would the shellac tend to decrease dye uptake into the curly part of the maple?
Super video, Mark as always. I like the shimmer that you get with curly maple when you use as little color as possible so I first apply the dewaxed shellac, then finish up with General Finishes H-performance semi-gloss. What do you think of this water based topcoat for the curly maple?
Ok I have a late 1920's Colt 1911 hand ingraved . The box it came with is well about gone . So I want to make a display box for it that is really interesting . So any help on wood that I can pick up at the North Phoenix store would be great. Now I like to have a light dark wood mixed in with a light color wood
Hey I just finished a project with curly maple and I'm looking for a lighter brown dye. As well as what should I do to get the wood feeling more shiny and soft feeling. Any suggestions? Thanks
I’m a bit confused about your advice on hand planing. You mentioned that we should use a 50° bevel to reduce tear out, but you also recommend planing on an angle, which has the effect of reducing the effective angle of the blade to the wood, in the direction of the plane’s movement. So how is doing that better than keeping the plane bevel at 45° and planing with the grain, not at an angle?
I'm a drumner that wants to learn to build and finish my own drums. I want to dye mostly maple shells in a sunburst or faded color and add a top coat. Do I need a spray gun to do sunbust or fades? What is the best place to buy my finishing supplies?
Sprayer is best, but you could also get some tinted lacquers in aerosol cans too. but yeah to do that sunburst kind of finish, you need spray or aerosol to really get the nuance of that effect.
Great information. Question: dye first, then shellac then clear finish? Is that the right order? To clarify, I want to use shellac as that's what I have on hand but also want to try some color. Thanks in advance.
Violins are usually finished with a colored varnish. The pigment is in the clear coat not a stain on the wood. This creates that unique effect you see in those instruments. But it’s apparently not a super durable finish since it’s purpose is to sound good. You can look up violin finishing videos if you want to see how they do it. Staining the wood and then putting a dull clear coat on it as shown in this video is not going to create the same effect.
Why is it that your website tries to sell me twice the board feet when ordering a piece of wood by size? 1" x 9.5" x 2'6" is only 1.979 board feet but your site tries to sell me 4 board feet! What gives?
In order to end up with a piece of wood that size, you have to start with something larger. The number it calc's is just a recommendation of what to order. You can order less if you're not comfortable with that estimation.
I have yet to see a dyed piece of wood that looks better than natural. It's a subjective opinion but that dyed piece at the end looks cheap and not attractive at all.
