How to Finish Quarter Sawn White Oak and Pop The Figure 

All your videos are exceedingly informative/helpful; this one is no exception. You explain things well and your short demos are digestible & instructive. Thank you. Quarter sawn oak is my favorite wood but because of its open grain I’ve been advised to avoid it for spoons carving. I if I tried anyway, any thoughts if I tried using a wood filler (clear or tinted) once carved to fill in the grain?

Thank you for your help. This opens up many options for color and depth of character of the Ray Flecs.

Awesome information, super helpful! Thanks for posting! I always seem to screw up my finishes on oak; I’m usually trying for the sort of look that plain mineral spirits gives but mess it up with stain. You’ve given lots of brilliant options, cheers!

I use Danish Oil, only leave it on momentarily then wipe off. I wait about a week and then topcoat with Briwax. For me, it's all about getting the shade right... I want the feel of the 'golden oak' mission finish you might see on a Stickley chair or the like. I've salvaged enough QSWO out of a house I am remodeling to case out the entire house. I want to make it feel like 1900 when a person is in the house. For me, QSWO is the absolute pinnacle in finish carpentry material.

good timing,about to make a bookcase from it.Thanks

Great video this will help in my mission furniture building Thanks.

Completed two matching end tables of quartersawn white oak and used your third method of staining/dying. I used the Behlans Solar Lux medium brown walnut but two coats full strength then a dark walnut gel for the grain. Finished it with a cloth applied satin oil urethane. The results are a rich, reddish brown with beautiful flared figures. Thanks.

I learned something about finishing 1/4 sawn White Oak, thanks for the video!

I had good luck using coarse steel whool after staining to remove stain from the grain instead of sand paper.

Thanks for the video

I am refinishing a desk that has a mix of quarter sawn and flat sawn white oak. I used Mohawk golden oak dye and then added two coats of old masters grain filler (with brown maple dye). I scraped and then rubbed out the excess grain filler. The wood looks great as is. My intention is to add lacquer or poly as a finish coat for protection. Should i add dewaxed shellac before adding the finish coat? Should I scuff sand the grain filled surface before hand? Rubbing out the table with the grain filler has left a very nice patina on the wood and a very slight reddish hue that i like.

What was that last board that you never said what you used on it? It had a reddish color but more solid than the one you talked about. Was that a different dye and stain color?

great video!

Thank you .....you have the best what to do with white oak on You Tube..... Many many thanks. I had a problem Now I don't thanks

I am surprised you did not try "fuming" the wood with ammonia.

Thanks

Question:. What are diluting the dye with? It's a NGR dye and they sell their own acetone based dilluter. I also have watched most of your videos where I see denatured alcohol in the background. In a blog post you mentioned using water, but doesn't that raise the grain or do you use that as a retarder as the dye dries so quickly. What's best?

I had to pick up Mohawk Brown Maple since I couldn't find the one you used. (I think it's the same company, however. I don't remember where I read it, but they said not to use a shellac, it could cause the dye to bleed, it recommended boiled tung or danish oil. I'm brand spanking new to this, would tung oil work OK as a sealer after the dye?

Wouldn't wiping the danish oil with the grain counterproductive?

Also try removing the pore filler / gel stain with a plastic putty knife. Just an idea. Fuming is another option. Be careful with oil soaked rags = fire hazard. Don't forget the Bloxygen.

How would you burn white oak grain? Seems I can’t . I’m trying to do a flag as the tabletop with a burnt finish with propane but it just doesn’t burn the grain as easy as pine or poplar

Any way of staining red oak grey besides trying the steel wool and vinegar method(which makes it oak very dark)?

Hmmm....came across your vid whilst searching for an answer to my own predicament. We have converted our house which involved knocking down walls and so has meant that two disparate mosaic wood block floors are now side by side. Having sanded away 50yrs of dirt and varnish has revealed two lovely, but completely different, woods, one is a very light (yellow) oak and the other teak (I know it's teak because the previous owner left some unused 'tiles' in the attic which were stamped 'teak'). Although we really like both I think we're going to have to stain?? the oak down to something as close to the teak as possible......but can this be achieved?? Any thoughts would be very much appreciated.

Mark, love your very informative videos. Question for you, getting ready to use one of your techniques to do two bread boards I have cut in quarter sawn. The rest if flat cut white oak. Can I use the dye technique for the whole table top? Meaning, does it matter if it is quarter sawn for flat sawn? Also, what color penetrating oil stain did you use?

Can you wet sand with a Minwax Oil-based stain?

I have a question: Does the gel stain really do an adequate job of filling the grain compared to regular woodgrain filler? I'm working with mahogany and saw the video that you did, in which you used red dye/sealcoat/woodgrain filler on the final piece which looked amazing. That's a look I hope to achieve. Would a dark gel stain be a suitable replacement for the woodgrain filler in that case?

I actually don't like to see the medullary rays popped out like that. Ammonia fuming achieved a much more even colour.

Did you dilute the Behlen dye with water? Also, are you using any special applicator or just a lint free rag?

which finish looks the best is up to the one doing the finishing....

Hi, just a question, when sealing it with shellac how the gel stain in the next step will penetrate the sealed layer and color the pores, I appreciate clarification of this

Hi, I have a question about quarter-sawn oak flooring. I’m wanting to install quarter sawn and plain sawn oak flooring as a mixture throughout my home. I know that quarter sawn expands vertically and plain sawn expands more horizontally (speaking of flooring at least). Will this cause issues with the height difference or cause expansion/warping issues between the different cuts of flooring? I have a pretty good deal on rift & quartered sawn oak flooring (HurstHardwoods.com if anyone is wondering) but I would like to mix it with plain sawn oak flooring as well so the floor is not too over-bearing with the amount of flake rays in the quarter sawn wood. I’m planning to do a ratio of about 50:50 with quarter-sawn vs other cuts. I’m also mixing 3 different sizes to give it a more random width look and break it up some more. I’m planning to use your staining/finishing method to “pop the figure” which will be labor intensive for an the entire first story of my home but I think it will look great. I might share some pictures when it’s all finished but that will be some time down the road. What is your recommendation on mixing different cuts of flooring together, will that cause issues? My parents have an old house that has “run of the mill” flooring which includes rift sawn, plain sawn and some quarter sawn and there doesn’t seem to be any issues but I haven’t been around for the 85 years this flooring has been in the house so I don’t know how many times it’s been sanded or if it had issues in the beginning and had to be sanded to match the heights of the board or anything like that. Let me know what you think, I’m planning to order the flooring sometime this week and could use any advice you could give. Thanks for your great video on finishing quarter-sawn oak, it’s one of the videos I watched that inspired me to get quarter-sawn oak flooring.

Did somebody say oil? Don't forget the Bloxygen!

Ammonia fuming gives a beautiful even finish on oak , but you have to be very careful with this chemical process , as you would imagine.

Dont do this unless you are an expert woodworker, Getting results from one piece is alot different than an entire project. Trust me, I ruined a pool table that took four years to build. Doubt this? Try sanding several different pieces of wood that have already been stained and get a match among them. Then add more color, not to mention different colors. Not kidding, this is BAD IDEA.

God dammit the one I needed him to do he didn't do it. Why is staining so goddamn hard

How to make white look like sewage!

I made it with woodprix instructions !

Sending while varnish is wet .. well I'm confused