Clearcoating Bed wood

yes, any kind of finish on wood will richen the color. how much depends on the wood species, stain, etc. stain will darken the wood but it will be wet. once the stain and wood dries out it will get lighter. put a topcoat on it and it will go back to how the wood looked while the stain was wet.
 
Sample sample sample......
Something else to consider anytime doing a wood staining project. Besides the usual variance in wood grain you can get either from the same tree or even the same board, wood purchased in a different time period could be substantially different. Never EVER use a stain from a supplier that is supposed to look like their picture on said particular species of wood & fully expect it to look as expected. Also worsening getting color you might expect from a particular species of wood is the fact that so damn much of our wood supply now is of south American or Asian origin. What suppliers may call oak sometimes these days may be some funky type of mahogany.
If staining a pile of wood all bought from same place & same time, most of what I just said may be a waste of breath. But let's say in the subject of this thread you mess up a section of board from a kit & buy locally, it possibly could stain more different than expected, especially these days. Again good reason for sampling..
Also on staining I mentioned for convenience using a spray can of clear ENAMEL for clear sampling since it will have a pretty equal effect to stain as automotive clear. Lacquer clear has a tendency to draw red pigments to the surface & can alter colors DRAMATICALLY as in making a mahogany colored stain look orange, don't ask how I know. Minwax spray can be used for sampling, but adds a hint of yellow/ beige tint to the final look, which can be a good look for a lot of woods. If you want to achieve this with automotive clear, lenmar lacquer based stains can be used as a tint, among other stains.
Not all needed info for the original posted project here, but if I save anyone reading this some unneeded aggravation, it was worth a few minutes of typing.

Also mentioning again sampling doing a light torching over wood, & possibly light sanding some of it off before staining & or clearing. Tried some cypress recently & really highlighted the beauty of the grain patterns. Here's a google images link.
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en...j0i10i24k1.0.vhEd-jSkVpE#imgrc=MjPoh8jPUk9BNM:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en...c.1.64.psy-ab..0.1.147...0i24k1.0.5GUm1jM0jU0
 
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Great info thread. Question- is epoxy used when going for glass finish because of evaporating urethane solvent shrinkage?
 
yes and the fact that epoxy ends up being much thicker so when wood heats up in the sun for instance it will keep the grain from swelling up,moving and showing in the gloss of the finish. with urethane clear, even if you get all the solvents out, the film is so thin compared to epoxy that the grain will still move and end up showing.
 
the epoxy is what you sue to build up the wood finish and get it smooth. then you can topcoat with euro or universal
 
Here's pics of a birch door I cleared today just to show the tone differences in the same exact species of wood. The less defined side is about as light as a cleared wood can be.
 

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Here's a sample of red oak with minwax honey oak stain on far right and clear only on left. Grain darkens a little more than the surface material.
 

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next is all honey oak stained & the left portion slightly burned with map gas torch. Much more grain pronunciation with a little overall darkening. There is a hint of blotchiness which wouldn't get noticed with darker stains. I meant to do a sample with lenmar black glazing, will try to do one later this week.
 

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here you go. had to dig this up from the archives lol. this was a ford truck i did some years back. i finished the oak bed. its hard to see the finish in the pictures. only a couple spots you can see the gloss but these were epoxied then topped with universal. no stain on this oak. just clear finish. the bottoms of the boards were done in black epoxy to seal them up
Is that a fuel filler cover in the bed?
I will be needing something similar to that when I get to doing the 55 Chevy bed, either that or I will have to install one in the left rear fender. Do you have a supplier for those?
 
next is all honey oak stained & the left portion slightly burned with map gas torch. Much more grain pronunciation with a little overall darkening. There is a hint of blotchiness which wouldn't get noticed with darker stains. I meant to do a sample with lenmar black glazing, will try to do one later this week.
Thanks for posting the samples, it really helps.
 
Ok , here's the same 2 samples. The stain/clearcoat only, unburned sample has a little Lenmar black glaze applied directly over the clearcoat & wiped off sideways trying to leave it in just the grain, Sample clear was minwax spray can gloss, 3 coats. One light coat of real clear may have gave a hint lighter color & left more large grain open to hold in the glaze. Could have gave a light scuff sanding after proper drying time to get that last little bit of glaze off main surface.
2nd pic is Old Masters gel stain in Spanish oak (their darkest)over the unburned half of other sample.
Of course these camera pics lack quality compared to in person.
Haven't used glaze products too often, but generally they get wiped on & off first before the main stain color, which slightly lightens the entire glaze color, but will be darker overall as opposed to the way I did it over the clear.
So, sample sample sample. I did a spot in old masters gel stain simply because it's easier for most people to obtain than lenmar. Going over the top of slightly cured, but still fresh enough for adhesion clear, Clearcoat tinted to black or brown , ss black , etc would be wiped/ squeegeed over into the grain & the remainder lightly sanded off. The only really wrong way to do something like this ( within boundaries) is the one that looks like crap.
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yes thats the fuel filler door. that truck was so long ago that i have no idea where that came from. i dont even know if i bought it or the owner. lol
 
I bought 4 minwax satins, honey, oak, pecan, and gunstock. Use a piece of red oak and did all 4 plus some combinations. The bottom one looks the closest to what I'm after. The honey gets stuck in the grain to darken it, and the gunstock and oak give me the overall color I want. (40% oak, 40% gunstock, 20% honey).
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Ok, my customer wants a bar top type look, shinny and smooth like glass. I've ordered West System 105 and 207 hardner. I plan on staining, letting it dry at least 4 days, then applying the West System epoxy, at least 2 maybe 3 coats. Then what, block with 220 and if the pours are filled in, sand to 400 or 600 then clear with Euro or universal?
 
Ok, my customer wants a bar top type look, shinny and smooth like glass. I've ordered West System 105 and 207 hardner. I plan on staining, letting it dry at least 4 days, then applying the West System epoxy, at least 2 maybe 3 coats. Then what, block with 220 and if the pours are filled in, sand to 400 or 600 then clear with Euro or universal?
And if..., after all that, the customer isn't satisfied, have Jim C work his faux wood magic.... lol
 
assuming this is oak, typically what you will do with the epoxy is squeegee a first coat on working the epoxy into the grain. you will remove almost all the epoxy off the surface. just squeegee it into the grain. let it set up until its thickened up or 1/2 cured then do it again. when that second coat has gotten 1/2 cured you will pour on the final coat. you will need to pour on enough so it self levels. prob 3/32" thick. let it set for 15-20 min then run a torch over the epoxy quickly to pop the air bubbles. the first two coats are to seal the grain and keep more air bubbles for endlessly coming up out of the grain ruining the pour coat. once that is cured you can sand smooth and topcoat with clearcoat or you can just leave as is. i just did over 100LF of solid mahogany bar top. its was a ton of work and took a boat load of epoxy. looks good though.
 
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