Signing the fowler

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Hmm.   I will give the rottenstone a try.   Have to pick some up while I am out today.  Just need to remind myself to be patient.

You know, I took some Kramer's Best Antique restorer and put it on a scrap.  Soaks in deep. Very nice color and highlights..might take forever to build up the finish. It has a turpentine base.  Don't know if Chambers will work over the top but I will give it a try.

[Dave K]

Tom, if you are using the rotten stone as a filler, how does that work with the carvings? Will it kind of plug them up or are you working pretty hard and fast to keep that from happening. When I had wet sanded English walnut to use the slurry to fill grain, I would avoid the checkering on those stocks to keep from "plugging" the checkering with the slurry. Are you preferring to use an alcohol, oil or water based stains? I too am finding that the Dangler stains seem to kind of muddy the grain a little. I want to darken the wood just a little and the Dangler Golden Brown is close to perfect, except it seems to not me as clear as I would think it could be. When mixing up a color in with the filler, are you staining the stock also, or just adding color to the filler and making that become your stain to color the stock?

[keweenaw]

I'm using the rotten stone with an oil finish.  If it gets into the edges of the carving you can easily wipe it out with a soft tooth brush before the finish sets.  The oil doesn't set fast so I like to leave it and the  rotten stone on until the finish just starts to get a bit tacky.  That way it is less likely to wipe out of the pores. 

A stained filler isn't going to do much to the color of the wood.  Just use enough stain in the filler to get it the color you want the filler to be.  I've switched almost entirely to using dyes rather than stains to avoid hazing the surface of the wood.  My preference is for water soluble ones as they penetrate better and are more light fast but the alcohol soluble ones don't raise the grain and are also easy to use.  With either of these if you think you got the wood too dark you can wipe back with the solvent - water or alcohol - to cut back on the color.

This is a good place to get dyes

http://www.woodfinishingenterprises.com/misc.html#adyepdr

part way down the page you'll see links to the different general types.  Mostly I'm using mahogany dyes on walnut as I like the slightly reddish color.  Dangler's golden brown is really a maple stain so maybe the light golden brown or one of the medium maples would work.  I should also add that the color you get with the finish on will differ significantly from the just stained color and the haze you see when it just has stain on it will frequently disappear as the finish develops. 

Tom

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Tom. have you tried filling with 1# cut of dewaxed garnet shellac?  I have not tried it on my scrap black walnut yet, but as soon as I can mix some up this weekend I will..... On another cherry fowler I used it and sanded it back to wood and then used Chambers Oil Finish.  It worked great.  Have to make sure their is none on the surface or it can mess up the oild finish.

I would think a couple 3 coats of the shellac would make a pretty good fill

Your experience??

[Dave K]

Tim and Tom, since I have all the Dangler stains right here and right now. I thinned the golden brown and the reddish brown by 50% with denatured alcohol. The I put one coat of each color on the test piece and put 2 coats of tru-oil on. This was of course just to see how it looked. I think I may be on to something that I want. I wanted that hint of red that the mahogany would give, but I do not want to make the wood look actually red and or muddy, but I wanted to make it a little browner. I think I am getting close to what I want. I may even try to thin the reddish brown just a little more, but I will wait to see what the sun and natural light make it look like.

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Test colors:

Ferric Nitrate, Danglers Golden, Danglers Reddish with one coat oil finish



Chambers traditional oil Finish only

[California Kid]

Tim, with black filler and Chambers oil I think that stock would look great. The grain will really pop as you don't have a lot of sapwood to deal with. I've learned from looking at pics of originals of the period you are working in that most are not as red as everyone seems to think. The red seems more of an 19th century thing.