I have a soft maple table top that I'm thinking about a finish for.  While I'm fond of unstained maple, the legs are cherry and the apron is some unknown laminated wood (this was a 'kit' that I bought).  So I'm trying to tie it all together.  Maple is notorious for blotching with a stain.

 

So last week, I read this article about "put on 3 coats of shellac then wipe on a stain."   Normally, I would consider this a glaze, the the article clearly shows a can of Old Masters wood stain.   I'm skeptical as normally wood stains need to soak into the fibers.  So, following my cardinal finishing rule, "When using a new product or technique, run a trial piece on scrap."   So I grab some wood and put on sections of 1, 2, and 3 coats of shellac.   Then I wipe on some stain.  Not very much coloring.   I even try some Old Masters that I happened to have and really all I see are brush strokes (well, I used a cloth, but you see the lines).   And I'm worried that the stain will not dry well and just smear with a subsequent coat of finish.

 

So I won't be doing that.   On the reverse side, I just applied the two stains to raw wood and sure enough, blotch.

 

Back to the drawing board.  Won't be doing this so-called great method.

I feel your pain! I was so proud of this little 3 legged stool and then I had to ruin it with Danish oil

 

It has mellowed out a little from the extreme blotches when I first did it.. It's just a shop stool and it really didn't matter- just made me mad.

 Does the amount of shellac prevent the stain from reaching the wood?

2 hours ago, DuckSoup said:

 Does the amount of shellac prevent the stain from reaching the wood?

Yes, that made me wonder why this would ever work.

Perhaps a coat of BLO and then lacquer.   Danl

That is why I rarely use stains, yes dyes but not stains. I kinda like the natural wood anyway. Like you I had hear the shellac trick but not tried .

I mentioned on a thread awhile back about a home brew sealer passed to me from an old time finisher - 1 part shellac to I-don't-recall-how-many parts DNA (maybe 4?).  He used it for pine, and it worked well.  I wonder if it would help on maple?  

 

I think someone commented that there's a similar product on the market now.

Danl, never BLO under lacquer.

  Maple never blotches but Birch does big time.

On 3/11/2021 at 6:53 AM, JimM said:

I mentioned on a thread awhile back about a home brew sealer passed to me from an old time finisher - 1 part shellac to I-don't-recall-how-many parts DNA (maybe 4?).  He used it for pine, and it worked well.  I wonder if it would help on maple?  

 

I think someone commented that there's a similar product on the market now.

Well known technique -- "Wash coat"   Flexner also talks about it when he talks how the directions for "Pre Stain Conditioners" are wrong

 

http://www.refinishwizard.com/washcoatsolids.htm

On 3/11/2021 at 5:38 PM, Smallpatch said:

Danl, never BLO under lacquer.

  Maple never blotches but Birch does big time.

That's an interesting observation Jesse. Almost every question I see about blotching involves either maple or cherry.

Fred I have used Maple for the last 15 years or so on all the things I have made and for the ten years before that I used Ash and neither wood blotches the way I do things.

    I did start out using thin Birch on the early large clocks I made but it does blotch bad but then I would use a pan full of stain and dunk the wood in the stain after I scrolled the pieces so the blotching was either solid and one could not tell if it was or not and then this got a little expensive so I switched woods to use less stain or dye which ever and then started using the air brush almost all the time after that. Amazing how so few use an air brush for it solves lots of problems!!!

Also I have read where some don't even have an air compressor so my comments would not help anyway.

  Also I don't know how people go about finishing their things.