Recently got a pickup truck load of red oak thats currently drying and is down
to about 14 percent. My wife would like a new bed for our new queen size
mattress with matching side tables and I have some plans for this project. I
believe that quartersawn white oak was mostly used for the original arts and
crafts furniture but is there any reason red oak would not be okay? Any
recommendations for finishing the red oak so that it appeares as a resonable
fascimilie of the white oak? The red oak is not quartersawn. I have never
built any nice furnature nor done any fine finishing but have a broad enough
background and experience to be confident of at least getting the parts cut out
and put together, nor is money for finishing supplies a problem It's the
actual finishing steps I'm worried about. Although I do not have an HVLP
sprayer I do have a good quality automotive spray gun with compressor. I have
DAGS and read quite a bit on finishing in general and arts and crafts in
particular but most all of it does call for white oak. I want it to look nice
and would like to use the red oak I have. Do you think I would be better off
getting some white oak or will the red be okay? Finishing recommendations? TIA
Mike in Arkansas

Red doesn't, and won't look like white. It'll look pretty if you treat it
right, and that means not like white. Your "fumed" finish will have to come
from a can of stain. As long as you don't mix in the same piece, should
make a nice bed.

"JMWEBER987" wrote in message
...
Recently got a pickup truck load of red oak thats currently drying and is
down
to about 14 percent. My wife would like a new bed for our new queen size
mattress with matching side tables and I have some plans for this project.
I
believe that quartersawn white oak was mostly used for the original arts
and
crafts furniture but is there any reason red oak would not be okay?

"George" george@least wrote in :

Red doesn't, and won't look like white. It'll look pretty if you
treat it right, and that means not like white. Your "fumed" finish
will have to come from a can of stain. As long as you don't mix in
the same piece, should make a nice bed.

George is correct that you can make some nice furniture in this style with
the red oak. You're likely going to want to get really familiar with dyes,
rather than pigment stains. DAGS for this oft-covered topic.

I'd like to add that you will want to pay attention to grain, particularly
with red oak. The relatively open grain will take stain differently than
will most other woods. This means that you need to understand what that
will mean in your finished projects, or you will have more, (or possibly
less) grain showing than you wish to have.

Make a small table, or something with a leg similar to what you anticipate
using on your magnus opus. Use you finishing schedule (which you have
tested earlier on scrap), and see how the grain looks after a couple of
weeks. Red oak has a tendency to look considerably different on edge grain
from face grain, in the same piece.

Woodsmith, FWW and probably a number of other magazines have had articles
over the past few years on how to take what you've got, and make it behave
more closely like QS, or match up well within the one leg piece. They've
explained it better than I could here.

And have fun with this project. It's nice to build stories for the family
for later on.

Patriarch

Finishing recommendations for red oak....

We've been doing a great deal of work with red oak over the past few months on
an arts and crafts style home. Beams, moldings, mantles and archways are all
red oak finished to match some of the original architectural woodworking. We
take pains to mill it without tear out, which you need to watch for on this
large grained wood. Then we finish it to 150grit, taking pains not to lift
edges (and impail our hands on gigantic splinters) when breaking them. Use
sandpaper wrapped around a block with slightly rounded edges to avoid this. We
then flood it with a golden oak/walnut stain mix to start. Then we apply 2
coats of dyed satin varnish, sanding lightly in between. We leave the pores
only partially filled. It looks nice.

JP

We leave the pores
only partially filled

Thanks to you gentlemem for your replys. Just read two more oak finishing
articles and both filled the pores. One by using a product made for that as a
first application and the other sanded with oil to fill the pores. How do you
manage to 'leave the pores only partially filled'/ Mike in Arkansas

On 29 May 2004 22:44:56 GMT, (JMWEBER987) stated
wide-eyed, with arms akimbo:

We leave the pores
only partially filled

Thanks to you gentlemem for your replys. Just read two more oak finishing
articles and both filled the pores. One by using a product made for that as a
first application and the other sanded with oil to fill the pores. How do you
manage to 'leave the pores only partially filled'/ Mike in Arkansas

Having just picked up some 20.7% ammonia Monday
AND
having just read an article by Stickley last night,
I'll try to do as he did: fume and wax. I'll try using a shoe-
brush on the wax to remove it from the pores. Since I had to
settle for red oak (some QS), I'll play with finishes until I
get something I like, but I won't intentionally fill the Oak's
lovely pores.

JPGs to follow...some day.


-
Yea, though I walk through the valley of Minwax, I shall stain no Cherry.
http://diversify.com

(JMWEBER987) wrote

We leave the pores
only partially filled

Thanks to you gentlemem for your replys. Just read two more oak finishing
articles and both filled the pores. One by using a product made for that as a
first application and the other sanded with oil to fill the pores. How do you
manage to 'leave the pores only partially filled'/ Mike in Arkansas

We don't use pore filler - we just spray a couple of coats of finish on after
staining. This seals, but doesn't "fill" the larger pored areas.

JP