Hi, is there a way to paint or stain white maple strips to look as mahogany or walnut wood? Thanks.
I once bought this wood stain by MINWAX. Tried it. It looked absolutely awful. Tried again with same awful results. Wood color would become deep dirty brown, almost black. I would not cover my fence with this kind of stain. I decided that this is unacceptable and had the can discarded. Do they have some stains that produce a light colored wood surface?any wood stain would work
I'm surprised that this stain would darken maple that much. I have Minwax Golden Pecan, and it barely darkens light hardwood, but does certainly color it. Stains tend to darken heavy grain (which you don't have) and rough areas (which you may have). Perhaps the wood was rough? Or maybe just bad stain, as that is very unexpected. With oil stains and hardwood like maple, the hardest thing is usually getting it dark enough. Edges of stripwood, which are usually rougher, tend to stain darker, but that usually doesn't hurt when used as planking.I once bought this wood stain by MINWAX. Tried it. It looked absolutely awful. Tried again with same awful results. Wood color would become deep dirty brown, almost black. I would not cover my fence with this kind of stain. I decided that this is unacceptable and had the can discarded. Do they have some stains that produce a light colored wood surface?
I agree completely. When I modeled scale plastic aircraft, I and others would lighten colors based on the scale used. The smaller the scale (like 1/72), the lighter or more faded the color, the larger the scale (1/18), the darker or more true the color. We would add a percentage of white to any given (darker) color, to "fade" it and make it look more scale. For very light colors, especially white, adding a percentage of gray has a similar affect. Often I would use gray to fade darker colors as well.I have a theory in my head that wood color is affected by a sense of scale as much as the physical size of parts. Take oak color for example…stain a piece of boxwood with MinWax light oak stain and, in scale, it appears too dark. So one has to use a lighter color stain to achieve the light oak color in scale. I have used MinWax “Natural” stain to achieve very good oak color on model planking. Natural is very light in tone but provides a nice oak color in scale. Also, I have used straight matte sheen polyurethane on deck planking and it toned the decking enough by itself to provide a nicely toned deck color…especially settling into the cracks, crevices, and treenails to nicely bring out those features. So when I am faced with wanting to color or tone wood for the model I start out with stain colors several shades lighter than what I am wanting for an end result…and in scale…it usually turns out right.
How attached are you to the white maple? It might actually be easier, and more satisfying as to wood tone, to not try to tone white maple to mahogany or walnut but rather get some actual mahogany or walnut strips. Use the white maple for something else???Hi, is there a way to paint or stain white maple strips to look as mahogany or walnut wood? Thanks.
Hi Signet. Thanks for your comments. They were very useful.I'm surprised that this stain would darken maple that much......
How attached are you to the white maple?