I made a set of serving trays a couple years ago. They immediately became integral to our daily lives. There is a separate post on how I designed and built them, so I will only mention differences here. This article is about layering dyes to emphasize figure and rubbing out lacquer to a flawless finish.
There is nothing wrong with the old trays. It’s just that we handle these trays all day every day and I find the wood and the finish on the old trays to be ordinary and uninspiring. The more intimate my relationship with a piece, the more important it is that the piece speaks to my eyes and my fingers while also being useful.
Standard disclaimer- nothing in this article is original. I took information from lots of sources and melded it into what you see here. I tried to stand on the shoulders of those who do this routinely but still found lots of opportunities for mistakes and do-overs. Other than quarter-sawn oak, this is my first attempt to finish figured wood to emphasize the figure and chatoyance.
This is the high-altitude view of the process: Dyes can emphasize figure by layering colors. A dark dye soaks into the largest open pores. A series of lighter dyes and colors are added to manipulate the chatoyance and color. A film finish is applied on top, usually high gloss to emphasize the shimmer. Everything else is details, where the devil lives.
I spent about a month working on my recipe for curly maple. I made a test board because I learned the hard way to make test boards. After many fits and starts, I settled on this recipe:
- Transfast Extra Dark Walnut (powder in water)
- Sand away all but the stripes with 180
- TransTint Golden Brown (alcohol)
- Sand away about half the color with 220
- TransTint Honey Amber (alcohol)
- Steel wool just enough to mellow the glow
- TansTint Medium Brown (alcohol)
- Steel wool to desired final color
- Deft gloss spray lacquer
- 10+ coats for a substantial build
- Rub out to high gloss
It takes some trial and error to learn how much to sand between dyes. I tried do as much of the project as I could at one time for consistency. On a project like these trays, the inside faces need to be final finished before one even cuts the stock to length. There is lots of shop rash to be inflicted on the outside faces during joinery and assembly, so applying final finish is at least a two-session affair with lots of time in between. I took good notes and did my best.
I used both alcohol and water as solvents in my dyes. I also used liquid and powdered dyes. If I ever use up my stash of powdered dyes I will replace them with liquid and use alcohol as my sole solvent. I prefer alcohol because it dries fast and doesn’t raise the grain as much.
There are exceptions. When I made my first set of cork tray bottoms and dyed the cork shelf liner with alcohol-based dye, the alcohol ate the material. Live and learn.
The time and effort invested in a color recipe only got me about half way to the end result. I had to face the question of varnish. I really wanted to do these in French polish to get that look and feel, but shellac is simply not durable enough for me on a project like this.
I experimented with French polish under a coat of wipe-on poly and the results were quite good, but my confidence in the long-term integrity of poly over a built-up shellac finish was shaky. I also hate using poly unless necessary because it is difficult to repair. There was a hand-to-forehead moment coming up, but in the mean-time I committed to poly over shellac and completed the inside faces of all 16 boards that make up the sides of these trays.
Lacquer. Smack. Of course. More durable than shellac, more easily repaired than poly, and a similar look and feel to French polish when rubbed out. I sanded everything down to raw wood and started over. Ugh.
I am a big fan of Deft spray lacquer. I find it to be very forgiving, especially the satin version. The gloss version is a little harder to apply evenly, but that is less important when you plan to rub out the finish.
I had a little experience rubbing out finishes before this project, but not a lot. Again, I read about the experiences of others. Rubbing out a finish is easy. The only real trick is not to rub through the varnish.
Okay, I rubbed through the varnish a couple times. No biggie. One advantage of dyes is they penetrate and provide some insurance against ruining the color when you breach the varnish. Also, if the color is altered a bit, the last dye color can probably be wiped over the error without having to start over. Lacquer makes it easy to resume building a varnish coat without starting over, too. This happened to me on 3 of 16 tray sides while pre-finishing the inside faces and it added a few days to the project. Meh.
Tips for successful rubbing out- Let the varnish cure fully. In the case of my lacquer, I left it for a week.
While I was waiting for my lacquer coat to cure, I “restored” the headlight lenses on my car. You’ve probably seen the commercials. Several companies sell kits to get rid of the yellow haze that develops on plastic headlight lenses. It’s like cataract surgery for cars. These kits contain a progression of abrasives that sand away the yellowed layer of plastic. The kit I used included a progression of P500-P800-P1000-P3000 and then a fine rubbing compound. Together with a spray bottle of soapy water it worked great. It wore out my shoulder, but the results were worth it.
It was immediately obvious that the headlight restoration kit was perfect for rubbing out varnish.
I started by leveling my sprayed-on lacquer with 320 grit paper and soapy water. As soon as all the shiny spots were gone I took each board through the same progression I used on the headlights, except I added the use of a medium rubbing compound between the P3000 sandpaper and the fine rubbing compound. Starting with 320 and adding the medium rubbing compound as the penultimate step weren’t necessary, but it decreased the elbow grease needed to produce a flawless high-gloss finish.
Rubbing out a finish gives you great control of the final sheen. From satin to sparkling, you can stop the process at any point. For highly figured wood like this curly maple, only the highest gloss would do.
Buying headlight refinishing kits to rub out varnish is probably not cost effective, but if you only do one or two projects this way, it’s tough to beat the convenience. If you buy the kit for the car and have materials left over to rub out a project, you’re recycling!
I made two substantial design changes from the old trays. First, I rounded all the exterior corners. A round corner looks great, feels great, and is far more damage resistant than a sharp corner. These trays are constantly being nested together and the corners get bumped every time.
Second, I added a finger hole to the ends of the half trays. The thing I liked the least about the old set was how hard it was to get the half trays out of their nesting tray. I put a ¾” hole in each end of the new half trays and now they are a cinch to retrieve.
I don’t expect to convince anyone that making another, more refined set of serving trays was necessary. Like many of the tasks I undertake, this was just for me. I love the way these look and feel. I experience a sense of satisfaction every time I use them, which is all day every day. For me, that’s a big return on the investment.
Scenes from the shop:
