Birch can be beautiful but the finish is unpredictable, especially on smaller pieces. The undulation of the endgrain causes the stain to absorb unevenly. Some have had success pre-sealing the wood then sanding out before staining Finishing wood, especially the staining, can be very frustrating. In the business, you can tell if I am trying to persuade or dissuade someone from staining birch by the language. Whether I call it an unsightly blotchy look or a lovely mottled texture affect how people respond. Whenever possible I prefer to use a wood that already has the right shade that only needs to be enhanced with a clear finish.
Mixing stain with finish probably won't help. It will be too diluted. It should be a tint or dye especially made for that purpose.
Good workmanship on the wood. I think it's worth it to countersink the screws.
Ah, I see. Thanks for the insight on the finishing. In that case, I would probably leave it as it is and finish up with one more layer of varnish before I let the finish start curing. I had no idea it takes so long for the finish to completely cure - makes me appreciate the time and expertise put in by craftsmen altogether.
I did do a good bit of research before I started on it, and read that birch was one of the harder woods to stain, with most recommended an aniline dye mixed with shellac instead (both of which requires a good deal of effort to source compared to buying a can of varathane from a hardware store). There was also mention of using a conditioner, but I figured on a 3mm 3 layer birch plywood, using a conditioner (recommended by some) would be a bad idea as the layers are so thin that it would probably prevent the plate from absorbing the stains at all.
I do agree on the point of not trying to emulate a different wood using stains; but that was a lesson I learnt after the fact, as I had no idea what the birch would look like in the first place. All in all, it was a very interesting experiment for me.
Plywood or solid hardwood?
birch sucks to stain, it's extremely blotchy which can be good sometimes, but not always. You might want to try a dye instead of a stain since it penetrates more and doesn't hide as much grain.
As for end grain absorbing more, sand to a few higher grits than on the rest of the piece. I've heard this makes the endgrain smoother and thus don't allow it to absorb as much of the finish/stain so it will have a more consistent look.
Also, I think it's called a French polish and you use super fine pumice to rub out the finish.
It was laser cut baltic birch plywood. Not a choice of wood I would think of using again, if I ever do anything similar in the future. The finishing, like kurplop said, was rather unpredictable. I had no idea what it would look like until I finished with it.
I probably owe thanks to both you and kurplop while working on this; perusing your forum's project logs and kurplop's worklog on his ergodox tray had given me a good idea as to how the sanding process should be, and how it should look prior to even thinking about staining. Thanks!
The back plates definitely have more 'character' since I was a little more heavy handed with the staining.
I found that the blotches occur at certain spots of the wood when the grain seems a little 'hairy', for lack of a better word. I assumed its part of how the wood's characteristics, as I did spot it prior to staining, and some additional sanding specific to that spot didn't actually do anything to help.
It's reverse side, which I think looks cleaner in comparison (purposely left a lighter shade and I did some grain raising on this side before I stained it):
Given how the plates are reversible anyway, it's not a big issue. Though I don't actually know which side I like better
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