How should I refinish a quarter sawn tiger stripe oak dresser?

[justbugged]

So I bought a birds eye maple dress for less than a 100.00 dollars. It is ready for a finish. What I need now is to know which type of finish to use. I am leaning towards varnish, but a oil finish wood be simpler to do. There is also Varathane that I could use. Also should I use stain on it. The first picture shows two different colors, but in person it looks to be the same. So should I stain and then use varnish? I would like to keep it a authentic as possible with the finish.

The side view is what the dress looks like in person.

 

[EweSheep]

Just awesome. Stuff like that don't come by often and they do demand high prices!

I hope someone with furniture restoration will answer...I'd like to know too in case I do get a dresser.

 

[chrisf]

Looks more like quarter-sawn tiger oak.......................

 

[EweSheep]

What's the difference between those two type of woods?

 

[chrisf]

Birds eye maple has little dots with swirls around it, tiger oak looks like tiger stripes...................................................Chrisf

 

[goldenluver]

I agree, it's quarter sawn tiger stripe oak. birds eye maple is completely unique that it looks like eyes in swirls.

what ever you chose, remember there once was another finish already on it, always do a sample spot first, because if the two finishes do not have the same base the will fish eye and crackle. also a sealer helps so you don't need as many coats to get a deep shine.

 

[justbugged]

Okay I was told that it was maple, but I thought it looked like oak.

 

[justbugged]

Quote:
It looks as though all the original finish has been removed. I would assume that any original finish would have been an oil based finish. So as long as I stay with an oil base I should be fine? Right?

 

[Roy]

I would use a Tung Oil finish...

 

[justbugged]

Okay I went and really looked at the dresser in daylight and there is a significant difference in the color between the top 3 drawers and the bottom drawer. I am just going to have to get my FiL to look at it, and hope that he knows what stain color I am going to need.