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4K views 42 replies 25 participants last post by  papadan 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I'm pissed off and feel like ranting a little. Leave now if you don't give a damn. I am a woodworker, I build things out of wood! I choose the wood I use based on what I want the item to look like. Holly is pure white and Ebony is black, there is a wood for every color and grain type in between these 2. Hundreds of different looking woods and different finishes to achieve the appearance you want, like oil based to pop the grain and darken the wood some or water based for a crystal clear natural appearance. So what the Hell is up with everyone using all these Fed up stains and dyes to hide the looks of their amazing wood? A really good friend of mine asked me to make a set of legs for a coffee table he has. 2 legs were broken and repaired badly and a 3rd one was lost in a move. He asked me if I would make a new set of 4 to match the originals. I couldn't figure out what kind of wood he had so I sanded down one of the old legs, they are red oak. I made 4 new legs out of 6/4 red oak and made sure I ran the grain the right way for table legs, that is why 2 of them had broken, they were made of cross grain wood. Now comes the Fed up part, I had to match the stain on the originals. Damn stuff is a cross between red and orange and MinWax calls it MAPLE. What the Hell, Maple isn't redish orange, it's a light tan color. People build a table out of some great Red oak and then put this ugly crap on it to make it look like what some dumbass thinks maple should look like. This crap is worse than Mahogany stain. Who ever came up with the idea that dark red is the color of Mahogany, it's a medium light redish brown before anyone screws it up. Put the god damn paint cans down and make something that looks like wood!!!!! And before anyone says a damn word about it, I don't know how to make paragraphs on this stupid site! RANT OVER!
 
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#4 · (Edited by Moderator)
Happy 4th of July!!! Dan.

You need to refinish the table and the legs, Dan. You know. That's how it is done.

I thoroughly enjoyed your absolutely wonderful rant. I am sure it cleansed your soul.

Have a good one, Dan… (-:

PS, I am contemplating replacing a chipped out piece of a maple railing here in La Conner WA at our vacation home. At least this maple looks like maple…
 
#6 ·
You know papadan, I could not care less about you and your attitude toward me and that is why I have you blocked. That said, trying to match stains is a chore, AND IF YOU DO NOT MATCH YOUR LIGHTING CONDITIONS BETWEEN SHOP AND DISPLAY LOCATION, you will fail. Spent several weeks figuring this out on my own during a restoration of a +100yr old piece of furniture. CFB, Halogen, LED, LCDs, incandescent, etc. are ALL different, regardless of lighting "temperature."

That part you will have to figure out on your own, but it is do-able.
 
#7 ·
Hello Mike, Not sure of an attitude towards you, but to each his own. I'm blocked by several people so I can't offer any advice to them, or laugh at their jokes! Life goes on. Yo Jim, I ain't gonna refinish the whole thing, too damn much work, I like building new, if he wasn't a close friend I wouldn't do the legs.
 
#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
Sorry, I read it anyway….

I have nothing against staining wood, especially oak, it's ugly natural.
Many woods benefit in looks from stain, and many times stain is required for a piece of furniture to go with the decorations/accents of the room.

Matching stained wood isn't easy, it's almost an art.
I just look at it as another challenge to test me. (If it were easy, anybody could do it!) lol

Being in business, many jobs will require matching the stain.
Having the ability to do it may be the difference in getting the job or not.
I look at it as another skill to have under my belt that keeps me making a living.

Plus it's a given that it will cost more!

Pay no attention to spammers!

PS
I still don't get why someone will block you,
then feel the need to comment on your thread, go figure!
 
#11 ·
Good rant. Everybody needs to release pressure now and then.
For my money however, I'm willing to give anything a pass that makes red oak look like …... not red oak!
Just my opinion.
 
#12 ·
For me I never worked with anything other than pine (and a few boards of poplar) until a couple years ago. I didn't have the money or resources to get other types of lumber so anything I did that I wanted a certain color I either painted or stained. That being said I am one of those ppl that hate seeing all this stuff painted.
Just offering another perspective on it….. ignorance is bliss right?
 
#13 ·
As someone above said, to each his own. When I stain, I use a very dilute aniline dye and don't go for a drastic change. Except when I go for a radical change. This time the blonde shellac was colored and built up. This particular guitar is also a polishing toy, reversible and I can do another color or go back to the original burst

http://lumberjocks.com/Texcaster/blog/42796
 
#16 ·
I'm pretty much limited to construction lumber here, so it either has to get stained or stay a sort of ugly-arse yellow :p

I'm with you on stains that look nothing like they are supposed to though.

Press enter to get a paragraph :)
 
#17 · (Edited by Moderator)
I m pretty much limited to construction lumber here, so it either has to get stained or stay a sort of ugly-arse yellow :p

I m with you on stains that look nothing like they are supposed to though.

Press enter to get a paragraph :)

- MikeB_UK
+1 on the paragraph. I never got through his whole post, to run together hard to read.
 
#18 ·
There is a time and place for everything. Refinishing is one of them whether we like it or not. So dyes and stains do have their place, especially on period pieces. Skills & sometime luck to get a perfect match is not easy sometimes.

I don't like using dyes, fillers or stains but on new wood but they have place in refinishing process.

So there you go hope you got it all out and feel better!
 
#19 ·
Love the rant, and really like the tags you applied to the post!

Hope you're feeling better. I am.

And yeah, it's called a Carriage Return, or Return key, or Enter key for paragraphs. Some readers are quite sensi about such things.
 
#20 ·
Stain matching is an Art and a science. Or should I say color matching. So we must also consider dyes and Tannen conversions by chemicals or physics like heat and Light and steam.
the light it appears in is important or should I say the presence or absence of UV light and the amount of short WL. spectrum light.
That being said I like the natural look of the wood I choose.
PS. I will never block Papa Dan.
 
#21 ·
Yes, my rant is over, I managed to match the crap on the table.

Does not look like the Oak that it is, and does not look like the Maple it's called.

Ok, so maybe now I can put things in paragraphs!

I do have 2 people blocked, one that is not even here anymore, and hopefully never returns. And one that is here and just can't control his idiotic compulsions to attack me. LOL
 
#25 ·
Generally, I don't mind staining wood to get a desired result.

There was one time, though, when a client asked me if I could tone down the bright orange/yellow stripes in a piece of Macassar Ebony using a stain. I had to tell her that if I stained Macassar they would take away my woodworkers card. I refused to do it. The woman obviously had no appreciation for beautiful wood.
 
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