Pretty colors

Well, almost pretty colors. I’ve set up a little area in the garage to do the staining. The work surface is a spare piece of MDF I had laying around sitting on some sawhorses and the makeshift dust barrier is a 2 mil plastic drop cloth duct taped to the ceiling. I’m sure that this will accomplish very little in terms of keeping dust off the work and will mostly just ruin the ceiling but I thought I should make some kind of effort. All of the table pieces are sanded and have been cleaned with denatured alcohol and I’ve started a stain and finish sample which you can see in the second picture. The gallery for the table pictures is here.

The sample is black on one side and red on the other and each side has been divided in half to test the two finish options I’m considering. Finish #1 is a water based, satin polyurethane which I have some minor concerns about the black india ink bleeding into. Finish #2 is a clear shellac which could end up looking very nice except that I haven’t worked with it before. I have to say that I am pleased with the way the india ink looks on the sample. It is very uniform and matte but you can still see the larger grain features and it covers very well with just one coat. The red looks weak and washed out with one coat but the second coat basically matches the color to the coffee table I stained several years ago and is vibrant red. I expect that a nice glossy finish like the shellac will look fantastic on it. I’ll play with the finishes tonight after rowing and then, provided they look decent, I’ll start staining the table pieces tomorrow. Hurray progress!