Bleaching Quilted Maple

[RGGR]

Contemplated putting this in Finishing section.

I have set my eye on nice piece of quilted maple, at local woodsupply store.

BUT.....there is some brown discoloration in the wood. As I'm wanting to do Royal Brown Burst, I'm debating what would be wise course of action.

Bleach the wood...

http://www.woodzone.com/articles/wood_bleach.htm

And then stain.....

Or as I going for Royal Brown burst anyway.....hope that brown stain will make color look evenly.

I know testing on scrap piece is wisest. But as I haven't bought piece yet hope some one could tell me what wood bleach will do to quilted maple. Would it ruin the quilt????

Seen examples of bleached walnut and oak being as pale as maple.

Thanks.

Edited April 4, 2005 by RGGR

[Doc]

The grain in maple will not be removed by bleaching. The grain in any wood will not be removed by bleaching. I build a lot of furniture with figured maple, and I have one interior designer who likes it all light, figured, with no darkness at all.

Now the bad news. The grey brown stain in maple may not be removed by bleaching. Some mineral stains and spalting stains are the devil to get out of maple. You can bleach it dead white and the dark will just get a little lighter.

This goes for oxalic acid, hypochlorite, and peroxide bleaches.

A lot of times when you do get it out as soon as you add stain it "ghosts" back to life.

Best I cn tell you is try it and see what happens. Sometimes when you stain a stain it becomes an interesting detail. You should be able to hide a lot with a brown burst.

[PatientZero]

I had the same question. I have a beautiful quilt that has sapwood/heartwood variations. I haven't done any of the bleaching yet, but I'm going to try to test some scraps tomorrow. I'll let you know. If possible, I'll take some pics of the process. If you're interested, here's a link to some pics of the wood before any work was done Original Post