I'm somewhat new to woodworking and I'm planning on doing some live edge tables.  My issue is I don't have enough experience reading wood grain so that I'm able to predict what kind of color will come out of a slab once it's finished.  As I'm meandering through the local mill is there anything acceptable I can do to the slabs that will reveal their finished coloring?  I know you can wet a slab and bring out it's color but I hardly think you should do that to one that's already been dried.  Or maybe brush on a little sanding sealer...but that'd probably be frowned upon.

 

Any suggestions?

Mineral spirits works for that. Fast drying. No residue.

 

Also if the slab is rough sawn, a little block plane can be used to knock of the roughness and reveal the fresh wood.

Lew has nailed it.    When it comes to the final finish, you can also run a few trials on the underneath with various finishing products and methods and see which you like.   Some stains on some woods will blotch terribly and that is extremely difficult to undo.

If you want a smooth top look at the frames and routing methods documented on this site.  I would search on Slab Flattening.

 

Right on thanks guys.  Sounds like great advice.

On 1/16/2020 at 5:31 PM, Michael Thuman said:

If you want a smooth top look at the frames and routing methods documented on this site.  I would search on Slab Flattening.

 

That is so amazing.   My first year in woodworking, early 1980s, I attended a Tage Frid weekend seminar.   This was a common technique he used.   What is old is new again.