A Deep Red Mahogany Finish

Hey Whisper!

Great save on the old rocker and a good looking finish.

(Good tip too!)

-- God makes the wood beautiful--I simply rearrange it to make it more useful, hopefully.

thanks for the info. again you have been very helpful

-- self proclaimed copycat

Great tip on the dye and the gel stain. Heres an excellent site on making your camera safe for bad weather or in your case spraying of laquer.
http://web.media.mit.edu/~tim/pix/waterproofcamera.html

-- Say what you mean and mean what you say.

Wow…great timing Marc. I am rebuilding a couple of rockers which were being tossed out but ended up in my shop. I have been trying to figure out what to do for a finish and this gives me some great ideas. Nice presentation, thanks for the posting.

-- gbear, Carmichael, CA

hey thanks guys! You know the one thing I neglected to discuss in the video is pore-filling. I didn’t do a pore fill on this piece because I was using a satin lacquer. If I were trying to go for gloss, a pore fill would have been essential. Just want to make sure that’s out there before anyone starts to wonder. :)

-- For free video tutorials and other cool woodworking stuff, check out http://www.TheWoodWhisperer.com

Mark, I do alotta laquering, the front of my shop is where I end up doing alot of my spraying due to the weather outside. But where ever I am inside or out I get that air flow by setting up a box fan in front and behind me. One blowing at the project and one blowing away. As long as I spray the piece from one end to the other I never have over spray problems. Also I wanted to share with you the laquer I use. Its called Deft Iron Coat. Its a self sealing pre cat so on most woods its a two coat application. More purus woods like alder, poplar, pine, ext. I might put on an extra light first coat. Check it out, its a great finish!! They also have a killer exterior water base called Geo-link that is awesome of outside stuff. Thanks for the vid man, love your stuff.

-- Rogue

Right on time!! I just got some mahogany to play with ;-))

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

Heh Mar,

As always really great work. I have used the General Finishes before and like them very much

-- Mike, VT

Great ifo thanks, for sharing.

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker

Great video and restore Marc. Funny, I looked at the pictures before I watched the video and was gonna comment about the dog seeing a ghost in the chair or something..(it looked scared) then in in the video you indicated that Lexi did not like it.

Sometimes these saves/restores can give you that same level of satisfaction as an entire new project can. Thanks for sharing. Rob

-- Rob (A) Waxahachie,TX

Is cherry a dark enough wood to use this technique with similar results?

-- Jeff, North Carolina

You’ll have to run a test piece to see the affect of the color, and you may want to try a few variations, but yes, you should be able to use this same process with great results on cherry. Remember that cherry is going to darken naturally over the years and on its own will get rather dark (and incredibly beautiful). So you have to think about no only what the piece will look like now, but how that color change may affect the piece over the years. So I would recommend taking the final piece out and letting it sit in the sun for several days. That will speed up the darkening process. Then you can start testing your dye/stain combinations. With a nice dark base color, you may not have to add so much color.

-- For free video tutorials and other cool woodworking stuff, check out http://www.TheWoodWhisperer.com

Great video but I have a couple of questions.

You mentioned in your notes later on about pore filling. At what point would you have done this? For oil base filler would it be after the staining?

Also after the water and sanding what did you use to remove the dust from the chair before staining?

It was recommended to me to use a 1 pound cut of de-waxed shellac before using anything on ithe item first then staining it then fill it. What would the shellac do? Would this help, hurt, or no differences.

I hope you have time to answer these questions.
Thanks
Angela

-- www.WoodWorkersWebsite.com - Helping other woodworker's

I would have probably done the pore filling right after sanding and before applying the color. I would likely have used Timbermate because it is water-based an it readily accepts color after it dries. I think that would have been the simplest solution.

For dust removal, I will usually use a vacuum with a brush attachment to remove the bulk of the dust.

As for shellac, it depends. Shellac inhibits absorption of color. So if you add shellac first, your color is going to be significantly lighter. I would only use shellac first if you don’t intend to color the wood, or if you are using a toner or gel stain, or some other coloring agent that doesn’t rely on absorption quite as much for it to work properly.

But as always, try these things out on test pieces if you can. Ultimately, that’s going to not only tell you what things are going to look like but it better prepares you for the process you’re about to undergo.

-- For free video tutorials and other cool woodworking stuff, check out http://www.TheWoodWhisperer.com