Newbie Advice - Best staining method, showing off the grain

[JC01]

Hi there,

Off the back of advice I received here. I’m really happy with the results I’ve been getting from hand painting my frames. My confidence in that department is boosted! So thank you all.

However, one technique I haven’t got to grips with yet and one I’m nervous about is staining barewood black but keeping the grain visible. I have some really nice oak frames that I’ve made up but am terrified of ruining them and the thought of keeping them their natural colour seems so tempting…. Even though the art would benefit from a darker frame.

I know I need to get this nailed down as a common request seems to be a black oak frame for example.

What is the best method and what specific stain/products would you recommend? Is staining even the best route to take?! As a novice, any step by step guides would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks so much.

[fitz]

I’m no expert on this subject and others will no doubt have more experience but I have had happy customers looking for black stained bare wood mouldings using Liberon Palette Wood Dye and also Black Spirit Stain. You can still see the grain through the stain. I then use a dead flat finish to protect or simply clear wax and polish.

[JFeig]

Food for thought.
Practice your staining process on scraps of wood vs a finished frame.

[Gesso&Bole]

As Jerome says, use an off cut to test the finish.

Even after many years of hand-finishing, if I am experimenting with anything new, I make the frame(s) and save 2 or 3 small off cuts, AND make myself a chevron. I then test on the scraps first, if I am happy, I then do the chevron, and then the frame. It is then vital for me to write on the chevron what products/processes used to I can replicate. Over a period of years you can build up a fantastic display for customers to choose from.

To answer the question directly, on oak, I would suggest Liberon palette wood dye in Ebony. One or two coats, depending on how black you want it to be. You can put it on by brush, foam brush or cloth - very easy to get it even. It dries pretty quickly, then wax it over with Liberon wax.

If you are looking for a more subtle effect you could use acrylic paint (I usually mix it 50/50 with chalky emulsion and then add water to get the consistency I like). You could paint the whole thing solid black, wait for it to dry, and then with wire wool or fine sandpaper rub it back so the paint is just sitting in the grain. Then paint another coat of a slightly different colour (it could still be black ish - charcoal grey, or charcoal grey with some dark umber added). Repeat the rubbing back, but much gentler this time. If the result is good, go to the wax, if not, add another coat, with a slightly adjusted colour, rub back, and then wax. This will give a finish with more depth - it also means it's much easier to match the colours in the picture, as hopefully one of the hues you used will be perfect!

[prospero]

Don't overthink it.

Some woods (Pine , Obeche) are a bit tricky to stain. Oak is a breeze. You will get better results with Shellac rather
than synthetic varnishes. The trad way is to apply it with a cloth 'rubber', but using a non-fluffy rag wrapped around
your finger does the job. Brushing is OK put you have to avoid streaks. Practice a bit. If you apply multiple coats and
cut it back with fine sandpaper between coats you can build up a deep shine. I find that after about 4-5 coats the amount
of shine gained with each coat diminishes. You aren't dong furniture. One coat is enough.
When the Shellac is completely dry you can wax polish it using fine wirewool. Beware using wirewool on bare Oak/Ash as
little bits of steel will lodge in the pores and go black, rendering the surface spotty.

[Not your average framer]

Not all wood stains are the same, some are using transparent pigments, while some are using more opaque pigments. I'm not saying that one is better and the other is worse, but there may be times when a more opaque pigment may help to hide less desireable aspects within the wood grain. It is not always how much you spend on a particular brand of wood stain, which determines how pleasing the result will be. Wood stains do not always represent the best value for money, or necessarily the easiest finished job. Also it is worth remembering that it is possible to enhance the appearance, of the wood, or to also make it less interesting to a customer, so it is good to think about how it is going to look and a little bit of experiment on small scraps can be very helpful. I often make my own wood stains using acrylic paints and water, which enables me to fine tune the exact colour and you do not to see that colour, after it has dried on a small scrap of the same wood. If I am mixing my own stains, I always try to mix my own wood stain my stain using the minimum number of individual colours as a larger number of pigments often create a significant degree of dullness.

Different pigments create different refractive indexes and this can significantly affect the degree of transparency of the wood stain, so be careful. The eye can be quite sensitive to how warm, or cold one particular colour of stain my look, it's usually a subtile thing, but it worth looking at your tested colour sample with a subjective eye. Any adjustment of how warm, or how cold needs to be only a very small and slight hint of added colour, or even none if this looks O.K. Unnecesarily diminishing the transparency of the stain, can detract from that desireable glow effect within the finish. Small colour tweeks can normally be carefully acomplished with out determental effects, I just saying saying this because it's useful to know. Some woodstain colours are definitely more helpful for business, than others. Be very careful about using anitque pine stain purely by it's stuff, as it a very unpopular look, however it does have it's uses when mixed with something else to create something more interesting. I often use an anitique white chalky emulsion, which I rub over with a small amount of antique pine Black Bison wash and then rub away any surplus, before adding a pale warm grey wash, which also gets rubbed back to mostly show in less smooth areas created by the wood grain and possible small surface defects.

There all sorts of different ways of doing this on lighter woods like pine and I often add a washed out brown wash under the antique white so I can rub through in places, without the wood looking too new. Using wood staining techniques and washes is not only useful on quality wood types, such as oak and ash, but with practice and experimentation it is also a very useful technique on pine frames as well, I find it very helpful to produce some frames, using pine mouldings which can be very cost effective, but pine frames are less easy to sell without creating finishes to really "wow" the customers. Really nice top quality finishes can be a great way of adding extra value to both frames and other items, which you may choose to produce and sell, but you must get the time taken to do things like this vs how much added value that this is going to create for you properly worked out, otherwise what's the point! I also stain lengths of pine moulding to use for producing ready made frames, or to offer to customers just as I would with factory finished mouldings, because they are bought as bare wood mouldings, Whatever colour sample that they choose is either quick and easy to produce, or it's already in stock. Above all practice and experimentation have mainly been what has worked for me!

[vintage frames]

And now for a really annoying way to do it.

You don't have to do this. You can cut mitres using a mitre box and handsaw but a picture framer will go deeper and use a Morso.
So instead of a tin of black paint, try this.

You will need - 320 grit sandpaper
A good quality 3/4" flat watercolour brush
00 wire wool ( not 0000 )
disposable paint filters
Van Dyke crystals
Transparent or White French Polish 500ml https://finneyswoodfinishes.co.uk/Finne ... eady_Mixed
Dry powder spirit wood stains,
Black, Oak and Blue https://finneyswoodfinishes.co.uk/Finne ... rit_Stains
Methylated Spirits
Beeswax pellets
Pure Turpentine

Most of the above can be sourced on E-bay and there's enough powder stain there to last you 20 years.

First thing to do is 'raise the grain' on the oak.
Wipe over the surface with some warm water and allow to dry. Then sand it smooth with the 320 grit sandpaper.
Dissolve some Van Dyke crystals in hot water so as to make a really dark brown stain and paint this on to the oak. Slosh it on liberally, leave it a bit to soak in then wipe up the excess with a cotton rag. You can do this twice with no harm done.

Now let's make up a black stain;

Measure out two capfuls each of French Polish and meths mixed together in a yogurt pot.
Heap in some oak spirit powder using a small spatula or lollipop stick. Use the paintbrush to stir it in. It will make a very strong stain but add enough to darken a scrap piece of wood.
Now add a little Blue - aim for a violet tinge to the stain.
Finally drop in a quantity of the Black. What you want is a virtually OPAQUE stain that is very Black but with a bit of warmth and a hint of violet.
The stain should be strong enough to cover in ONE coat. Keep adding powders until it does.
When happy with the mix, pour it through the paint filter into another yogurt pot.

The oak can now be painted with the stain and left to dry.
After an hour or so, dull back the surface of the oak with the 00 wire wool.
Wipe away all the black dust with a cotton cloth and apply a second coat of the stain. Leave this to dry overnight.

The dried polished oak is then dulled again with the 00 wire wool. You can rub in at the edges to expose a little brown wood and add some interest.
Gesso & Bole alluded to this when he suggests using several tones of black. Any sort of 'visual complexity' is a good thing and is the most pleasing to the eye.
At this point you can paint on two coats of Ageing Glaze which will soften and mute the 'blackness' of the stain - and you can buy that from ME - or don't bother and go on to the final wax finish.

Instead to using the slightly greasy and very expensive commercial waxes, why not make your own. The current fashion is for a dry wax finish and you can get that much cheaper by dissolving some pure beeswax into turpentine. And your customers will love the piney scent coming off your frames

Pour some wax pellets ( E-bay ) into a yogurt pot and cover generously with turpentine. Leave to soak in overnight. Float the yogurt pot in hot water to melt all the wax and leave to cool. Add more turps if the wax is too stiff.
Rub on one THIN coat of wax, using a cotton rag to smooth the finish. After an hour or so, rub on a second coat.
When allowed to dry, this coat will buff up to a high shine. Gently take it back with a bit of 0000 wire wool and buff again.
Beautiful!

[fitz]

Very generous to share such detail and provide an insight into this process. I have learned a lot from it so many thanks for taking the time to post.

[Not your average framer]

Yes, excellent post from Dermot. You won't find detail like that in books. Really great traditional stuff from Dermot.

[vintage frames]

Thankyou. Very kind comments.

One thing I forgot to mention was to add a third coat of shellac after dulling back the second coat of stain. This is done using only the clear unstained French polish with some meths and then left overnight.
Doing this will improve the depth of the final finish.
All a lot of work but get it right and you can charge a premium - and enjoy the doing of it.

[Not your average framer]

All a lot of work, but get it right and you can charge a premium

Even with less work, it's not always economically viable, without charging a premium as well. I try to produce things which are niche market stuff, otherwise I'd be working for peanuts. The days of producing cheaper stuff are very definitely long gone and cheap imports have taken over that end of the market. For us that part of the market is gone and it's not coning back!

[Not your average framer]

Really nice top quality stained frames are a very useful market these days. Customers are very often looking for something extra special and many don't mind paying a premium to get it. Oak, Ash and Black walnut can be wood types with character wood grains and attractive figuring. Not all customers are necessarily looking for the best figured wood grain. I sell a lot of Oak frames to customers, who just like the idea of buying an Oak frame. I even sell small Oak ready made frames on a fairly regular basis, these are almost always made from off cuts and left overs. There has been quite a strong trend towards the "interior design" thing with many customers. I already have a few trade customers in that market and this creates a bit of business, but prices don't always result in a deal and that's just how it is! Smaller Oak frames work better, particularly for normal customers, who like the "designer" thing, but don't want to pay the prices of the specialist interior design shops. There's good money for me in these smaller Oak frames without creating any significant customer price resistance. Larger frames don't sell as easily, presumable because of price limits which customers have in mind'.

Stained finishes, with or without added washed top coats, washed, or washed finishes have a lot to do with being able to present something special for sale and without the extra treatment things can often look a bit too ordinary to create sufficient customer interest. Some of my smaller oak frames become box frames. I like the sloping inwards style liners which are just standard mouldings at worthwhile prices, which I like to fit into the frames, holding the glass into place and extendind out the back to create the full depth. staining and washing the outside of this box frame extension helps to make it look all one thing. Creating too much of a cntrast between the frame and the section hanging out the back, does not help it to sell. I often add a small wooden foot onto the bottom of the rear section hanging out the back to extend the footprint needed fro standing on a flat surface. I don't pay the extra for the Rose and Hollis pine version of the insert moulding, but prefer the Simons Obeche version instaed as It's a better price, so there is no matching wood grain effect on the rear section and consequenly, I need to add a wax and wash finish to the rear section to hide the difference a little. Staining the Oak and the back are a big part of what will sell the frame. My main emphasis is on quick and easy, so my staining technique needs to look good, but not take too much time.

I also make deep box frames from deep pine mouldings, these need a special treatment in order to create a nice stained finish, but it is a fact that a stained finish which give some visibility of the wood grain, without being too obvious that it is pine with helpit to sell. First of all the wood needs conditioning to control absorption of the stain to produce a nice even staining effect. I use a watered down emulsion paint which soaks in and blocks the pores in the surface of the wood, so that excessive amounts of stain don't get absorbed into the darker grain of the wood result in an un-natural level of contrast within the wood grain. After my initial conditional wash has soaked into the surface I wipe off the wasked surface with a pad of kitchen towel tissue and before it can dry, I apply my water based wood stain. A little bit of the wash of the pores of the wood gets ito the wood stain and slightly reduces the impact of the pine stain, creating a little bit of the look of a superior wood type. It is not a major effect, but it's a nicer looking finish and a lot more interesting to look at. I nearly always apply a top coat of Polyvine dead flat (matt) varnish, which just looks great!

It is often quicker and easier for me to create a stained finish of a frame, than an alternative painted finish. This can be a big consideration when producing frames in batches!

[Orde02]

That's a great bit of advice, Jim, making chevrons for different finishes. Sounds obvious now when I think about it but I've only ever tried different finished on scraps of moulding then kept those in a corner somewhere. I'll be making chevrons from now on and displaying them proudly!

Matt

[Not your average framer]

Yes, I liked what Jeremy said as well. I expect it will look really classy stained, or painted and rubbed back to reveal the wood grain. I'm assuming that Jeremy is likely to be thinking about doing this on Oak, which would probably be a great effect to look at and very classy. Really classy looking frames and finishes are what attracts the customers these days. Speaking to a friend, who is an interior design shop owner, selling almost all items from in the shop is really slow. Fortunately, her design and consultancy side of things is still quite bouyant. I am supposed to being prducing some framed blackboards for her and some mirrors with a single shelf at the bottom. Needless to say how I deasign these is going to be quite critical, in terms of material cost, labour cost a looking distinctive enough to create enough profit to be worthwhile for both of us. I have been very fortunate in having been given some large sheets of 4mm mirror glass and these have cost me nothing. I won't be planning on machining bits of surplus wood to make the frames. It's just too much fiddling about to be economically worthwhile.

I think that you've got to be really ruthless to make things like this to pay a profit in a slow market like today. The bottom end of the market businesses are largely struggling and it's mainly the top end of the market, which is still worthwhile, sales are stll there, but the town's footfall is not great in Febuary even in a good year. At this point in time, there have not been any shop closures in the town at all. I'm really amazed and I've no idea how all the shops are staying in business. To me, it just does not make any sense at all. It has not been a really busy town since being hit by the credit crunch, in 2008. Several businesses have been selling on line and running training courses, which has no doubt helped a lot. Customers who are in town for the training courses, need to eat and are keeping the cafes busy. Lots of us are feding of other peoples customers, but so far things are holding together surprisingly well. I've looking into selling on Etsy, which is a lot more niche market driven than eBay.

Classy stained finishes and effect, could well turn out to be a very important factor in driving income to many smaller buniesses. I'm really trying to find ways of getting perfect frames without needing to do any filling of inperfections of any sort. I no longer bother tidying up moulding defects at all. Defective bits and pieces, become rustic frames these days and that's that. Nothing goes to waste anymore, everything which can be economically turned it to something, which there is a worthwhile market for, with out unnecessary production costs is worth doing. it's as simple as that! Really nice staining is going to be something well worth learning and doing!