Accenting Walnut Feathering

[axtrick]

I have another question... On my current build my body blank is black walnut with very nice feathering almost throughout. I am going to keep it natural with a polished laquer finish. To get a feel for how much feathering is in the wood I wiped a little vegi oil on it and the feathering just doesn't pop. I was wondering if there are any techniques that would aid in making the feathering stand out? I have seen on one build where an amber stain was wiped onto quilted maple, then sanded and then a blue stain was applied really making the quilt stand out. Didn't know if this would work with the walnut.... with a final apllication of boild linseed oil to darken the wood

[cynical1]

Jun 9, 2013 10:36:33 GMT -5 axtrick said:

I have another question... On my current build my body blank is black walnut with very nice feathering almost throughout. I am going to keep it natural with a polished laquer finish. To get a feel for how much feathering is in the wood I wiped a little vegi oil on it and the feathering just doesn't pop. I was wondering if there are any techniques that would aid in making the feathering stand out? I have seen on one build where an amber stain was wiped onto quilted maple, then sanded and then a blue stain was applied really making the quilt stand out. Didn't know if this would work with the walnut.... with a final apllication of boild linseed oil to darken the wood

Maple is a much lighter wood and it's easier to make either quilted or flamed grains pop out. With maple, the trick is a black wood dye, not stain, sand most of it off, then apply your colored wood dye. This gives it an almost 3D effect. Again, this works great on maple.

And if you want to see the grain on a piece of wood, rub it with denatured alcohol. Vegetable oil is great for french fries, but it's a contaminant if you're looking to use lacquer down the road. It's also not going to simulate a final gloss finish. Oils never pop the grain like polished lacquer. I wouldn't suggest doing that one again, unless you want a linseed\gun oil finish...which may be inevitable depending on how much vegetable oil you put on there.

Without seeing the piece of wood you have it's hard to offer any useable suggestions. Dark stains on dark wood may give you some interesting results in the right light, but probably not what you're after.

Do you have any pictures?

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[Double Yoi]

Beeswax...my 2 cents...