Wood Finishing Simplified Strictly, Stickley Oak

This excerpt comes from the book ‘Wood Finishing Simplified.’ This is as true a finish as can be. The Stickley technique of coloring wood involves fuming the wood with ammonia gas and then shellacking and waxing with black wax to accentuate the grain markings. Here’s a way to arrive at the same effect while nixing the ammonia fuming. Replace the coloring agent (80-100% ammonia—hard to find anyway) with artist’s oil color and you’re on your way. The finish will work on solid wood as well as plywood, although if used on plywood, remember to shellac first, utilizing the 1-to-5-ratio of thinned shellac for spit-coat. This will prevent too much absorption of color.

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