Blonde Wood

vernonfarmer · Post by **vernonfarmer** » Thu May 03, 2012 6:05 pm

Since this is a Thompson forum and I'm restoring a Cruisers Inc Holiday, I'm here asking about Chris Craft blonde stain. See, the Holiday has a yellow deck framed with dark stained covering boards. I'd like to stain the deck with Chris Craft blonde stain and have the wood grain show through like the Chris Crafts. What wood do I use on the deck? Will mahogany stain yellow? How do the Chris Craft guys do the blonde wood? I have the stain...just need the right wood.

LancerBoy · Post by **LancerBoy** » Fri May 04, 2012 4:08 am

Same wood is used. It's just stained a different colour.

Depending upon the stain, you may have to bleach the wood prior to applying stain. Do not use household/laudry bleach. Klean Strip???? I think makes a wood bleach. I found mine at Mill's Fleet Farm.

Experiment on some scrap.

Andreas

Torchie · Post by **Torchie** » Fri May 04, 2012 4:22 am

The last CC that I restored was a 18' Riviera (one of the so called blonde boats)
On that which was a complete replanking, we picked the lightest colored Mahogany for the boards that were to be blonde. We then bleached them with Oxalic acid and when done they were almost white.(Can be purchased from most good hardware or paint stores)
We then used a natural stain on them to bring out the grain and then varnished the entire boat.
As Andreas suggest I would do some tests because depending on the varnish that you use you may not want to use the CC blonde stain. It may become to yellow.
Karl.

vernonfarmer · Post by **vernonfarmer** » Fri May 04, 2012 6:01 pm

Thanks Karl and Andreas. I'm not worried about "too yellow", since the decks on this Holiday were painted yellow. Any pictures I've seen show light yellow-ish color but can't really tell if was painted or stained. I've got the Thompson CD Rom but again, can't tell for sure.
jb