flin4116

I am in the middle of building a project out of walnut and have a problem trying to match the sap wood to the rest of the boards I am using. I have heard that this is not a job for inexperienced wood workers. Are there any tips you can share with me that will help?

Thanks for all your input. I found the solution to my problem at fine woodworking.com.

GeorgeC

"match the sap wood to the rest of the boards I am using."

What kind of match are you trying to make? Is this in the staining task or in the building task? The sap wood is obviously going to be much lighter than the other. To me this is one of the appealing items. I recently built a walnut chest and just let the boards "fall" where they would. I made to attempt to match anything and liked the looks of the final piece. Of course I am a person who likes contrasts.

George

Wood4Fun

+1

since the forum is forcing me to be verbose... "I couldn't agree with George more"

flin4116

Thanks for your input. I will look at the potential problem from a different perspective.

firehawkmph

Flin,
I agree with George. I like contrast also. If you must try to darken up the sapwood, try an aniline dye. They mix with either water or alcohol and really penetrate the wood. Each time you hit it, it gets darker. You could carefully just hit the sapwood and darken it up. But like I said before, I hope you don't.
Mike Hawkins

Mike49

The aniline dye has always worked for me, especially if it's color-matched to the darker wood. My supplier has a guy who's great at that.

I use a spray gun with the material knob turned way down and apply it airbrush style. That way, I can tone in the color a little at a time until it looks right. Just be careful to take it slow because the dye works fast.

flin4116

Thanks for your input, I found my answer at fine woodworking.com. It involves water soluable dyes from "wdlockwood.com"