I just took the woodshop intro class and have the take home piece of wood. It’s the perfect size for a project I have in mind, but all of my furniture is dark (espresso) whereas this piece of wood is maple. Would it be better foe me to use this on something else and get a darker wood for my project or stain or paint this wood?
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I’m not a woodshop person, but I would use a stain on that, rather than remake in a darker wood. Stain after finishing the project.
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If you can get a hold of an offcut of the same kind of Maple you should be able to get a good idea of how dark it can get and if you like it by staining it repeatedly.
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Great question! The first thing to know is that white woods like maple don’t always take stain evenly—they can get blotchy or patchy because of how the grain absorbs color. To fix that, I highly recommend using a pre-stain conditioner before your stain to help the finish go on smoothly and evenly.
My favorite brand is General Finishes, which you can find at Rockler or Woodcraft, or order online from Amazon. If you visit Rockler, be sure to mention that you’re a Dallas Makerspace member—they’ll sign you up for the Guild Program, and you’ll get 10% off every purchase.
General Finishes makes a beautiful Espresso shade that looks great on maple. Rockler often has samples you can test right there on your piece before buying—plus, they usually show how different stains look on various woods, which can really help you decide.
We’ve got a great relationship with the folks at Rockler, especially at the Frisco store near my house—they’re always easy to work with and very helpful.
If you decide to go with General Finishes and want a hand applying it or getting that perfect final coat, just let me know—I’d be happy to help!
Best regards,
HB
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Thank you all for your input! I’ll be hopefully making this project sometime in the next couple weeks and feel more confident now about moving forward with what i have (and hopefully pulling my off cut from the free pile if it’s still there to test) and staining it. @HB I’ll look into Rockler and General Finishes thanks for the suggestion!
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You don’t happen to have this General Finishes Espresso stain do you? I didn’t realize how expensive it is and i only need it for this one small thing so if you have some and are willing to share I’d be happy to pay per usage.
Sorry I do not. Good finishes cost aren’t free sadly.
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Many advanced wood workers tend to standardize around certain finishes. If a project requires something special, then usually the party that ordered the commission pays for the finish.
Walk the floor and talk to other woodworkers. Someone might have something you could use.
To place this into perspective and drive home HB’s point, we can compare your selected finish to the finish I prefer. Being a stain, your selection also requires a top coat.
My preference is below and notice small quantity compared your selection. This product is stain and sealer in one. For the same quart, your choice costs around $76 and my preference below would cost $210. Keep in mind the coverage is not one-to-one. The very small $80 can (1/3 the size) of my preferred brand will cover a lot of surface area, and has many other qualities that are wonderful. Its primary use is for hard wood floors.
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Taking this down a huge notch, I will share some of my dark Minwax stain with you. I think it’s the Dark Walnut, but it doesn’t have a label.
Minwax isn’t the super high quality, but it does the job for me. And, I suspect, it will do fine for your small job. Let me know, as my stain is currently living in our booth at Scarborough, and I’ll need to bring it back to Dallas.
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If you take up Beth @dryad2b on her kind offer, you should at least buy a small tin of prestain conditioner. It will make a huge difference in the end result. Should be about $12 at one of the big box hardware stores.
Thank you all for your insight! My dad brought me some of his stain but he’s not sure how good it is anymore. I can bring it to the space though. If it’s no good I would be very appreciative @dryad2b to use some of yours and pay for the usage plus buy my own conditioner. I’m only being hesitant to invest a lot in my own since I have just this one wood project for the time and not sure when I’ll get to another.
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