Revealing the wood

[bradleyheathhay]

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?

[rrich]

I will revise this only to say that this post has been posted on other woodworking forums it appears that it is only to gain a posting count.

Sincerely I hope that you are a woodworker trying to gain information to make your projects better. If you are trying to sell CDs from 'Ted', don't even think about it. All of us here have almost no use for 'Ted'.

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Original post below
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Almost anything will help to bring out the true color and grain of the wood. It is best to use a solvent that evaporates rapidly. My favorite is lacquer thinner.

Water can be used and is especially required when a water based stain or finish is to be applied. It's called 'raising the grain'. After raising the grain you go over the surface with some 400 grit sand paper. Just a few strokes to knock the raised grain down. Why bother, you ask? Your water based finish will raise the grain anyway. If you go through the grain raising step you'll get a much smoother surface.

[poundy]

ask the merchants to assist. they'll either tell you go get lost or they'll show you what a piece looks like using their approved method, probably in a small corner. But more than likely they'll say "it's walnut; it's a walnutty colour like all walnut is" and you've just got to get in the groove of revealing the truest nature of the timber once you are finished and are doing your first coat of real finish

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Back when my wife was still my future wife, her parents caught her licking the underside of their dining table after I asked her what the wood-grain looked like.

But I guess if the merchants don't like wiping with a damp rag, that'd be frowned upon too...

:innocent:

[auscab]

Back when my wife was still my future wife, her parents caught her licking the underside of their dining table after I asked her what the wood-grain looked like.


Lol !!
:laughing1: