Antique light mahogany finish.

Mahogany wood is very popular in the wood furniture industry. Many furniture products in various types and items are made from mahogany wood. With the right model and finishing, mahogany wood can produce very interesting furniture product. Mahogany wood usually is finished in the dark brown or reddish brown color, according with its basic color. The red brown basic color of the mahogany wood makes it is quite difficult to produce light finishing color.

finishing step panel for antique brown mahogany

Finishing process is as follow. 

• Bleaching

To produce the light color from the dark wood we have to lighten the wood base color. And bleaching is the only choice to do that. The reddish brown of crotch is very strong, as well as solid wood, therefore we need a strong bleaching chemical. We used the hydrogen peroxide chemical (part a chemical) and the sodium hydroxide (part b chemical) as the strong bleaching chemical. The combination of both chemical is quite strong to whitened the red color of crotch mahogany.
We mixed 1 part of Hydrogen peroxide and 1 part of the sodium hydroxide and sprayed it to the wood surface until the wood was wet entirely with the liquid. The we put the wet wood under sunlight for about 3 hours to let bleaching chemical reacted and oxidized the wood. After about 3 hours under sunlight the wood was dry and a white wood surface was obtained. But we had to wait for about 24 hours to ensure the reaction was perfectly done.

• Physical distress.

After the waiting for 24 hours and the we were sure that the reaction was completed we started to do the finishing process. The first finishing process was the physical distress. We used nail, chains, files, and stone to rock and hit the furniture. We did the medium distressed according to the light antique finish we want to generate.
The process of distressing damaged the furniture and made some sharp and rough surfaces. We sanded the surface to clean the roughness from the distressing to make smooth surface. The sanding was also done to cut the arisen wood fibers caused by the wetting of the wood at the bleaching process. Sanding also continued to break the sharp edges. The antique finishing didn't allowed the sharp edges. The antique object should be used for long time and every sharp edges has to be wear and smooth. Any sharp edges should be sanded to became smooth and ware.

•   Applications of wood stain.

The bleaching process, that was done correctly produced the uniform color at the wood surface. It makes the color application quite easy to be done, we don't need the equalizer stain or sap stain to uniform the color. We used a light dye stain to be sprayed wet evenly to color overall surface.

• Wash coat application.

Wash coat is used to coat the surface of the wood and protect the stain so as not to be wiped in the glaze application. The vinyl wash coat was sprayed evenly to coat the entire surface, then we wait for about 15 minutes to let the wash coat dry.
After the wash coat dry then did the sanding to the wash coat to cut the arisen wood fibers. Scuffed sanding with # 280 was done to overall surface until a smooth surface was obtained.

•  Glaze application.

Glaze is a very important stain to make antique impression and deep and rich color at the finishing. Glaze was applied by sprayed, and wiped then brushed until it layered at the surface evenly.
To make more life appearance of the grain,  we highlighted the glaze. The steel wool was used to wipe the glaze layer in some part to enhance the wood grain.

We let the glaze for about 1 hour to make sure the glaze thoroughly dry.

• Sealer application.

Sealer is coated to protected the glaze and to built the film layer of the finishing. One layer coat  was applied to protect the glaze layer and to built the film layer.  The NC sealer was wet sprayed evenly to overall surface.  After about 30 minutes waiting the sealer was dry and we used # 280 sandpaper to sand the sealer coat. 

• Antiquing with glaze.

To add to the impression we did the the stain distressed. We uses the glaze to add the antique impression at the finishing. Glaze was dry brushed to fill in and color inside the carving, the holes and dents from the physical distress.
The glaze was also applied to make spatter and cow tail mark to make more dirty and antique looked.
The next process was the second sealer. The sealer was applied by spray as the first sealer.

After about 30 minutes the NC sealer was dry and we sanded the sealer to make smooth surface for the top coat application.

• Application of top coat

Top coat is the last finishing layer to give protection for the finishing appearance and color underneath.  In this process we used a low sheen top coat.  Ten sheen NC top coat was sprayed evenly to coat the entire surface. The top coat needed longer time to dry. We waited about 1 hour to let the top coat dry.

After the top coat dry we continued the finishing process by sanding the top coat layer. We sanded top coat layer with # 280 grade sandpaper to make smooth and even surface. Then we re did the top coat application. A ten sheen NC top coat was sprayed evenly to overall surface. We let the finish dry for  24 hours to ensure the top coat was fully dry.

• Rubbing.

Rubbing is the last finishing process. We did simple rubbing to make a smooth surface finish and more attractive looked antique finish. The finest steel wool ( # 0000 grade) was used to rub the top coat layer until a smooth and even finishing film obtained. 

 antique light mahogany finish