Stain match

[bigstik]

Hello everyone. I am new to the forum and relatively new to woodworking. I have done a few projects, but mostly on a smaller scale. My newest embarkement is making a table for the dining room. I have the wood picked out and am ready to start planing and joining them together. The only thing I have yet to overcome is finding some way to match the color of the legs to the table. The table is going to contain Purple heart and I was wondering what sort of stain would match. I have yet to find a "purple heart" stain anywhere, either in stores or online.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Nick

[astrid]

dont worry about not finding a puple heart stain, non of the other colours in stain ranges bear more than a passing resemblance to the timber their supposed to represent either.

you have to mix and match. ie get a can of the colour closest and adjust it by mixing in other colours

not being familiar with purple heart i cant tell you what bases to get but somone else will be sure to know.

happy colour matching

Astrid

PS what timber are the legs?

[artme]

Welcome aboard.
Have a look at the various Wattyle stains and the Feast Watson range.

[bigstik]

dont worry about not finding a puple heart stain, non of the other colours in stain ranges bear more than a passing resemblance to the timber their supposed to represent either.

you have to mix and match. ie get a can of the colour closest and adjust it by mixing in other colours

not being familiar with purple heart i cant tell you what bases to get but somone else will be sure to know.

happy colour matching

Astrid

PS what timber are the legs?

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking of using something along the lines of white oak for the legs. Something with a white'ish base to that I can match the color easier.

[rsser]

Purple Heart will change colour after you've worked it so give it time before you try colour matching.

Even then it will be trial and error so keep your leg offcuts to experiment with.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

[bigstik]

WIll do, and I will try and post some pictures of the process. I just got the wood thickness planed this week and am getting it jointed this Sunday. After that, obviously, comes glueing them together and then sealing it.

[MacS]

Rsser,

Is right, as Purple Heart does change color over time, and could end up a dark brownish color.

You should leave the legs alone, or be prepared to have to recolor them later on.

If you decide to stain them now, use a pigmented stain and a clear coat of shellec, this will be easy to strip off once the wood has change colors.

Good Luck

[MacS]

Here is a Purple Heart that has already darkened, others purple heart woods will have other colors.

[bigstik]

Well i managed to match the stain to the purple heart pretty good. I used roughly a 45/30/25 mixture of royal mahogany/water/antique walnut stain from minwax. I will try and take some pics of the match tonight but here is what the table looks like so far.

I ran out of wood and had to get some more and do the sanding but you get the general idea.

Thoughts??

[astrid]

thats amazing, is this table flat?

Astrid

[bigstik]

Yes the table is flat but the wood and the angels give it a 3-D look. and once the polyurethane sets the purpleheart will have more of a brownish tint to it. Thanks for the props

[bigstik]

Just to give you guys an update. We found the style of legs that we want and I tried out the stain on one of them. I think it looks pretty good.