Finishing Birch Toy Box

Well I’ve been working on a heirloom toybox/blanket chest for my kids for the past month and I’m getting close to being ready to apply the finish. The toybox is made of a combination of solid birch and birch ply. My goal is to have all the legs and cross member pieces of a dark golden or brown color, with the side panels left as a natural very light birch color. Here’s a link to what I am using as my inspiration for the project:

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/article/Arts_Crafts_Bridal_Chest/#

So here’s the question – I believe that finishing birch is similar to maple in that blotches are a main concern (please correct me if i’m wrong). I just finished reading a lengthy forum on finishing some maple pieces that ended with this approach:

1.Sanded to 220.
2. Spray the dye.
-I mixed 5 oz of water, 5 oz of denatured alcohol, and about 100 drops of tint.
- Put in my smallest tip to the sprayer and after practicing, sprayed the color to my dresser and drawer fronts. The dye dries really quickly but I sprayed the pieces to what seemed to be a uniform color of sort of a dark burnt orange color.
3. spray the seal coat of shellac/denatured alcohol (mixed 1:1)
4. spray the minwax oil based stain – I sprayed the stain so that it was a thin layer ( I was planning on toning after this step) that was reflective to light, I immediately wiped off. There was not much to wipe off at this stage.

I’m curious about three things here:

1. Is the tinting process truly needed, or would a dark stain applied after a shellac/denatured sealer do the trick?
2. Conversly, would a similar process of tinting, followed by sealing with shellac/denatured, and finally a clear poly coat work well? Is sealing even necessary in this case if finishing with poly.
3. Preference – sprayed or wipe-on on poly???

Thanks!

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