Enhancing figure in curly Jarrah

[PopeFalcon]

Hi All,
I'm new to Australia and its hardwoods. I'm making a small side table out of curly Jarrah and Sheoak. The Jarrah has some really nice figure that I'd like to enhance. With things like maple a dye is typically used to bring out the figure. Since Jarrah is so dark I'm not sure this will work.

I've looked through the forums and as expected the "best" finish for Jarrah depends on a lot of things including preference. I didn't see anything on enhancing figure though. If this is a duplicate post sorry about that!

Any suggestions are welcome. The pics show the figure in the woods.

[RufflyRustic]

If you have any scraps of the sheoak and jarrah, try a couple of finishes on each to see which gives the result you want.

For a coffee table, I'd use wipe on poly or shellac myself, however oil is also an option as well.

It comes down to a mix of personal preference and the most-suitable finish for the table's purpose.

cheers
Wendy

[ubeaut]

White or Hard Shellac will bring out the figure in the grain brilliantly without darkening the timber any more than wetting it down with water.

Most oils will darken it a lot.

Cheers - Neil

[rsser]

The lightest (in colour) oils we have are Organoil: Burnishing Oil or Danish Oil. They are also among the most durable. The DO dries quite flat and needs some buffing and/or wax over the top to yield a satin finish.

Normally to 'pop' the grain I reach for Rustin's Danish Oil but it's darker than those two.

[PopeFalcon]

Ok. Thanks for the tips. I tried a bit of oil on the Jarrah. It went almost black and most of the curl disappeared. I'm going to order some of the hard shellac and give that a go. I've never dealt with it because I thought it wasn't a very durable finish but this whole project has been an experiment so I might as well take it on to the finish as well.

Just for clarification it's not a common practice here to pre-treat the wood in any way to enhance the figure before applying the final finish? The dyeing I referred to before with the maple isn't extreme just a slightly darker color than the wood itself. The end grain from the curl darkens slightly and helps it pop. I'm pretty new to all of this so thanks again.

[Sebastiaan56]

Youve got it Pope, Curly Maple responds very well to stains as it is inherently so white. The only Aussie hardwood Ive seen that gets close is Cheesewood. Most are strongly coloured so stains only darken the grain.

You can get more "pop" by sanding a bit further than normal, so try going through the grits to at least 400. For Mandolins Ive gone to 600 before applying the Shellac.

[rsser]

We turners go to 1200 min and 2500 for exhib'n pieces!

[Sebastiaan56]

Yep, Ive done that as well but I didnt want to scare Pope

Ive also used epoxy to pop the grain, West Systems 105. It has the advantage of pore filling as well as bringing out the grain. Most epoxies darken the timber but West Systems doesnt.

[petersemple]

Micro Mesh on a good hardwood can be entertaining. Always bizarre to be able to see a reflection in unfinished timber. Just a shame the gloss doesn't last long in use.

Peter

[Nannup woodwork]

sand to 600 with handblock, burnish with hessian, brush on ardvos oil available from
planet ark, wipe off after 15/20 mins. 3-4 coats. now get yer shaving gear.

[gooma]

I`ll have to try some of that Ardvos oil sometime.

Also sanding to 600, applying the u beaut sanding sealer and applying a Catalysed laquer works great and doesnt darken it up too much.

Great choice of woods, cant beat that curly Jarrah

[PopeFalcon]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to go with the white shellac and sanding with the ultra high grit paper since the tests with the oil makes it go to dark. It'll be a while but when I get it finished I'll post pictures. Polishing the legs and lower stretchers is going to take quite a while I'm guessing. Fortunately a friend has loaned me a copy of "A Polishers Handbook" so I can at least figure out how to do it correctly.