natural finish for maple

[zootroy]

I am making a desk with a 1" maple top. I would like to put a natural, no fuss finish on it. Something that will protect the top, but not discolor it very much. I have read different ideas about boiled linseed oil, danish oil, shellac... does anyone have a recipe that they would like to share?

TIA
Jason

[Pappy]

Clear laquer.

[Ken Massingale]

I'm finding the General Finishes Seal-A-Cell followed with their clear Top Coat leaves Maple almost natural. Hardly any ambering.
Ken

[drumpriest]

Minwax polycrylic will leave is very natural looking as well. Doesn't smell very much, 2 hour dry time, brush on. I've used it on several maple projects. It will bring out the grain a little, but doesn't yellow at all.

[John Hunter]

Here is a photo of a small chest of drawers made from hard maple that I finished with a gloss poly.

[ATTACH]chest8.jpg[/ATTACH]
[img]chest8.jpg[/img]

[rollo]

maple finish

I just finished a crib and an end table, both hard maple. I used rockler's Wundercote (3-4 coats, sanded with 220 between coats) and the finish turned out great.

[JimD]

I also vote for polycrylic if you want no yellow tint. If a little yellow is OK (or amber if you prefer to call it that), you could use Min-wax wipe on poly. I used boiled linseed oil that dried for a week then polycrylic on some jewelry boxes of quilted maple for wife, daughter, and mother and they came out real nice. If you maple has any figure, you might want to oil it first. If not, you could just use polycrylic and have a durable clear finish.

Jim

[zootroy]

Thanks guys,

I'll play around with some of the suggestions and see what I can come up with. I'll post pics of the completed project (hopefully next week).

[gerti]

Rockler has a Polyurethane Gel that has become a favorite of many wood turners. I have tried it on pine and cherry turnings, and am amazed. It is the easiest finish I have used yet: wipe on, then wipe off and it leaves a very thin coat. Repeat twice, and the result is a very even satin finish which can be polished if so desired. And it looks very natural, not the kind of plastic 'on the wood look'. I am looking forward to trying it out on smaller furniture projects.

[final_t]

Maple Finish

I used Outdoor Spar Gloss Poly for my maple workbench top I just did. Hand-rubbed 4:1 diluted base coat in, and then three coats of the straight stuff. Results were great. For items that are less prone to banging about, a straight coat rubbed out should suffice.

[zootroy]

Well, I got my tops drum sanded today. Trimmed them to size and prepped them (sanded to 220). I think that i'm ready for finish. I've been trying out some of the finishes that were suggested. So far, I love the look of the BLO and polycrylic as Jim mentioned.

First question. People talk about letting BLO cure or sit for weeks at a time. I applied some to a test piece of hard maple, and it hasn't been seeping. What is the minimum time I should wait before the polycrlyic?

Second, should I just follow the instructions on the can for the polycrylic or are there any special tricks. Do you guys have problems with brush marks?