Fine Engineer
Member
So this is new for me, and I haven't seen this discussed here, so I thought I'd document what I'm doing.
I have a commission to make three pens and use an arm from a Morris chair for the wood. Bare oak would just look like new wood, and not be very interesting, so I wanted to try and match the patina of the source wood. Dark oak and even walnut stain were too light, and didn't highlight the dark grain of the original wood, so I used ebony stain which worked very well. After applying the stain and letting it dry for about 15 minutes before wiping it off, I let it dry overnight. Then I lightly sanded the blanks with 400 grit sandpaper, then with fine micromesh. This lightened up the surface wood and added contrast to the grain. As you can see, the color match is pretty close.
Then to help the CA adhere to the wood, I used two coats of dewaxed shellac (spray on). Letting that dry for an hour or two, I then used the fine micromesh to knock off the high spots and make the wood smoother. After that, I applied about 5 coats of CA, then finished that with the wet sanding pads down to 12,000 grit. So far I'm very happy with the results. I have not seen any reaction with the shellac, or the CA, but I will wait a day or so before turning the final parts to see if there is any change in clarity, cloudiness, or other possible defects that may arise.
By the way, I'm also going to frame this logo section of the original wood as it is just too cool to toss.
Jeff
