Wood Finishing Question

Our daughter made us a great gift, a laser cutting of our lake.
I thought about using a light color stain on everything except the water and then a few coats of poly. I think that would be a tough route to go as there are lots of nooks and crannys and a couple islands. My concern would be keeping the stain even and not bleeding. I’d hate to have it look sloppy and possibly screw it up as this is a one shot deal.

My other option is to just poly the entire thing. I know it will darken with time.
Is there something else that would give it a nice look? Varnish,shellac.

I’m also thinking about linseed oil and then poly.

Any ideas/suggestions?

Sure would be fun to have one of the laser cutters!

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How big is that pc? Could you make a table out of it?

I had a guy laser our lake on a maple coffee table I bought at a
garage sale for 10.00.

I clear lacquered it and put a pc. of glass over the top.

Turned out great.

I think you’re right that staining it would be a bad idea. You’d probably get some bleed into unwanted areas.

Scott how deep is the cuttings?

Maybe a good paint brush artist could paint the lake several shades of blue for different depths and then you could put a good coat of lacquer over the whole works. I love the lacquer finish!

Stain, unlike paint, is absorbed by the wood fibers and for a lack of better terms is sucked INTO the wood. Paint, is a glue based product that predominately adheres to the surface.

If I were to stain it, which I would, I think it could be done like water paints with a very fine brush, sponge, and wipe rag. With a tiny model type paint brush, you could carefully apply a minimal amount of stain to minimize the bleeding along the transition lines.

I saw a similar table top made using 3 different stain colors. If I remember correctly, they used one color of brown for all the islands, let it completely dry, did the water in ocean blue and dry, then the outer edges in a different color – all semi-transparent and it looked awesome.

Keep in mind that if you have very minor bleeding, your not looking at it from 6 inches away. A piece like that is viewed from feet away, not inches so don’t be way over critical on very minor blemishes.

It’s 18 X 32.
Randy, I would for sure use fine brushes if I were to stain the land areas. I would only want clear/poly on the water areas as to not lose the contour lines. I think that route would look fantastic, I’d just have to take my time.

Scott, the cuts are very, very shallow. That would be a pretty cool effect!

I’d love to have one made out of 1/8″ thick pieces cut all the way through getting narrower with each layer then stacked and cover with glass for a coffee table. Make sense? hard to explain, a 3d effect. I’m pretty sure she could do it.

I plan on a simple 1X2 stained frame.

Looks to be finished ply or is that my phone?

Bleeding on veneer sucks, but having the cuts will help tremendously. Just remember any stain you use looks darker on veneer than your regular solid wood.

If it’s going on the wall, I’d get the cheap cans of oil poly and spray it for first and second coat, so stains don’t bleed onto each other. (I don’t trust most stains out there to fully dry). Sand, then do a thicker coat of whatever after. I’d personally want to make sure its got a nice smooth finish, so dust can’t accumulate and easy to brush off.

I like the idea of spraying the first coat of poly to prevent smearing if I go that route.

belletaine wrote:

I like the idea of spraying the first coat of poly to prevent smearing if I go that route.

Its amazing how well just one quick coat does the trick. Had to find a way to do it on a checkerboard floor where the stains(designer picked, NOT MINE) wouldn’t dry. My two pointer fingers had a numb spot for 4 days after, no joke. Never again.

Hirshfields makes an awesome varnish spray

Fill it with water and soak a leech!!!!

joshkral wrote:

Fill it with water and soak a leech!!!!

There ya go Josh!

Lots of good ideas above and when it comes to a detailed item your finishing, your eye will always be brought to the detail, its the first thing your eye sees. So any mistakes or things that maybe didn’t go just right or look different, your eye will be pulled to those areas.

Beings there is end or side grain and those areas always stain darker id use some kind of wood prep or sealer in laymens terms. It seals that side and end grain so the stain doesn’t penetrate and better matches the other regular grain densities. Use a sealer and two coats of that with a fine sanding 250 grit or steel wool in between coats and like Randy said take your time and use an artists brush with maybe a few coats if you have too in that area to get the proper density or shades of color, and take your time because it will be worth it. When you get the shades of colors in each area then clear seal with minimum of two coats and until the sealer looks even and not too thick or it will look gaudy. Id stain your background colors first then work into the finer detailed colors and finer lined colors, work from background colors forward. Put up a picture when your done.

mossydan wrote:

take your time because it will be worth it.

That’s the key here. I’ve enjoyed woodworking as a hobby for many years but the learning never stops. All the tips are greatly appreciated! It’s a great lake for something like this due to it’s unique shape as opposed to a bowl type lake with minimal depth changes. It will be a treasured piece because our daughter made it. The pressure is on!!

Here is the finished product. I ended up staining the land areas. It was actually quite easy, I used a small model brush and the stain bled right to the outer cut. I did use two coats of spray poly and then three coats with a foam brush. Thanks for all the tips!

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looks great Belle-T

SWEET!