Authentic Stickley Finish
For the August 2012 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine,
I built a reproduction of a Gustav Stickley No. 74 Book Rack. It’s
a great piece in a couple of ways: It is useful and nice looking,
and it is also a great introduction to making through-tenon keyed
joints, one of the hallmarks of Arts & Crafts period furniture.
Early Craftsman pieces were fumed with ammonia to develop
their characteristic color, but later pieces were stained and fi n-
ished with early versions of modern stains and lacquer. In truth,
there isn’t much difference in appearance between the two
types of fi nishes, and a more predictable and consistent fi nish
can be achieved with stain. Predictability and consistency are the
problems with fuming. Fuming depends on a chemical reaction
between tannins in the wood and the ammonia, so variations
in the chemical composition from one board to another lead to
different colors.
If you fume, you’ll likely need to touch something up with aniline
dye, or layer on colored shellac to even out the color. It isn’t that
diffi cult to do, but it takes some patience and a practiced touch.
The top coat used over the fumed oak also plays a big role in the
fi nal appearance. When you’re fi nished fuming the wood is a
dirty, greenish gray and the fi rst time you do it, you will think you
ruined it. Garnet or amber shellac make it a nice warm brown.
My favorite fi nishing method looks authentic and is easy to apply,
but it takes a few days. Each step doesn’t take too long, but each
step needs to dry overnight. This isn’t a "Christmas Eve" fi nish.
As always, experiment on some scraps to get the color you want
before committing the entire workpiece.
Prior to staining, I hand-sand everything with #150-grit Abranet. I
use a pad that hooks up to a vacuum, but regular sandpaper also
works. Quartersawn white oak takes stain well, but it is possible
to make it too smooth and polished. When that happens, the
stain just sits on top of the wood and won’t color evenly. After
sanding, I dampen the surfaces with distilled water, wait over-
night, then sand again with #220-grit paper.
The fi rst step is to stain the wood with an oil-based stain. Almost
any stain with "walnut" in the name will come close to an au-
thentic color. I look for something that is only a stain; if the label
mentions "stain and fi nish in one," I choose something else. I
fl ood on the stain, wait about 15 minutes, wipe off the excess
and leave it to dry until the next day.
Following the stain, I apply one coat of Watco Danish Oil. There
are different colors available, and again, the walnut tones give an
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