# Flamed Maple Finish



## dpwalker (Aug 25, 2010)

Can anyone tell me how to get a finish like this? Notice the white/cream parts of the flames. I can do blue & black but the white has me stumped…!








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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

It's hard to tell from the computer I'm on, but is it actually white, or is it just the light natural maple showing through? Again, hard to tell, but it looks to me like it might just be the maple showing through?

If I would've kept sanding more on this trivet, the maple would've come through even more. I simply dyed it all blue, then sanded it down a bit, lightly exposing a little of the natural wood underneath.

I wonder if doing something like white washing it by adding an alcohol-friendly dye to Seal Coat, then applying a coat of the dyed Seal Coat, then lightly sand to remove part of it down to the bare wood, then add the blue? I'm thinking that may get the dye down into the softer grain, then once you sand, you'd be exposing part of the wood to accept the blue dye. Just don't use an alcohol-based blue, and have it essentially "sit" on top of the shellac, then wipe it down, leaving your white in-place. Not the best description, but I'm thinking something like that might work, if I'm thinking about it correctly? Does this sound like a feasible option?


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## HoosierDude (Feb 22, 2010)

Here is one way to do it.


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## bhog (Jan 13, 2011)

It kinda looks like a slight chamfer to me, which would go down to bare wood through any dye.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

You've probably already seen Trifern's popular post, describing his technique, here. Just thought I'd mention that as well.


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## Cosmicsniper (Oct 2, 2009)

The Trifern post is great.

Try Ed's thread here…

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/27475

Lots of experimentation done there.


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## shampeon (Jun 3, 2012)

bhog: That's a guitar, so the natural color edge is flamed maple binding, applied after the maple top was dyed.

The various posters here got it right. Dye the entire top black, then sand back, then dye the entire thing blue. Seal it up, then proceed with finishing coats.

If you want more contrast between the flames, you dye it black, sand it back, then spray a thin blue-tinted toner coat. Seal it, then add the top coats. The flame will pop a ton as the clear layers are added.

Here's a good thread showing a Les Paul getting refinished with the double staining technique:
http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/luthiers-corner/107455-r9-top-refinish.html


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## dpwalker (Aug 25, 2010)

While I appreciate & thank you all for the replies maybe I wasn't clear in my first post. I am not referring to the body binding, but rather the white/cream streaks in the flames themselves. It appears to be the natural maple itself showing thru as Jonathan suggested. 
Maybe they only dyed blue & didn't use black & sanded down? Now that I study the picture again that is how it appears to me. Anyone agree?


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## Cosmicsniper (Oct 2, 2009)

I think this was done first with black dye to pop the grain, then sanded back entirely. It was likely then uniformly sprayed with the blue dye…the color of which would be the light blue you see in the "whiter" areas. The dark blue you are seeing is a blend of the black and light blue dyes.


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## shampeon (Jun 3, 2012)

The first part doesn't have to use black dye. It could be a dark blue dye, followed by a light blue dye. Regardless, there's still a light blue tone to the parts you're describing as white or cream.

I guess it goes without saying that you need a very heavily flamed piece of maple to make this look like the piece you're trying to emulate.


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## Cosmicsniper (Oct 2, 2009)

I agree, Ian. But I think that first dye is dark.

It's not a question of what a light blue looks like over white and black, but rather how it appears over a light and dark canvas.


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## BigYin (Oct 14, 2011)

http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/vv47/bigyin1961/075.jpg
http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/vv47/bigyin1961/067.jpg

some other pictures there as well

Clearcoat all surface
mask edge 
blue clear coat in layers more layers to outside makes it darker
clearcoat again
There is no seperate edging, just the clear false edging.


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## HalDougherty (Jul 15, 2009)

To get this effect on maple, you first have to be coloring tiger or flame maple. You can see the streaks of cross grain wood in the grain before you dye it. The reason the stripes are darker after dying, is the cross grain absorbs more dye than the grain running lengthwise. Trifern also uses 3 dye layers. The first one is black, the second is the main color coat and the third is a yellow dye coat. It highlights the grain even more after the yellow dye.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

So I recommended Trifern's tutorial/post, yet suggested something else before doing so. Not enough sleep last night, nor enough coffee this morning, in addition to thinking about blending paint lately was a bad combination for my first post… sorry. It's also clearer in looking at it at home on a nice monitor, versus what I was viewing it on earlier.

In thinking about this a couple of times today, I think it's either a dark blue overall, or black first, as others have said above. The really dark color (blue, black, whatever) should really heighten and darken the grain first, and really show up after sanding it back, then hitting it with blue, and sanding back until you get down to more or less the first layer of wood.

Basically not only building layers of color, but showcasing the differences in depth between them, and especially the differences between the two hardnesses of wood in the maple, which allows for this type of technique to work well in the first place.


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## Cosmicsniper (Oct 2, 2009)

Yep, that's right, Jonathan.

I really recommend the thread link I posted above. It's one of my favorite threads on LJ's and I followed it closely when Ed was doing all his experiments with a flame-maple amp head. The result was magnificent and it shows everything you need to know to do that techniques with dyes.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

Jay,

I will have to take a look at Ed's thread when I have a bit of time later this morning. It's something I've always wanted to experiment with and learn more about, as I've only used dye on the trivet I linked to above, and the little Bud Light bottle cap balancer, so the more I can read about it, the better. Thank you.


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## dpwalker (Aug 25, 2010)

Thanks for all the replies. I got some good information & advice & I think I know what I'm going to try. I do have scraps to use as test pieces so maybe it'll work out. Thanks again folks.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

Definitely test it out on the scraps. And post back on how it goes!


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## BigYin (Oct 14, 2011)

I knew I had another blue dyed maple picture someplace

Guitar is by Krozka-Sharpe and was the only "blue jean" finish they did.

http://s668.photobucket.com/albums/vv47/bigyin1961/?action=view&current=martinjoe.jpg&currenttag=Krozka+Sharpe+Autographed+Signed+Steve+Vai


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