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Finishing Wood Corbel Supports

March 24th, 2011 Leave a comment Go to comments

Corbel Shelf Bracket With DowelsIn the video below you will learn how to apply an antique finish to an ornate, beautifully carved maple hardwood corbel shelf support. In order to make the unfinished maple corbels look stunning, there is a three step process you will need to get familiar with.

The first step is to apply an alcoholic based die to the carved raw wood using a paint brush. Make sure you are wearing rubber gloves during this process.

There is a complete series on building the shelf, preparing the supports and installing the unit that you see at the top right of the page at Osborne Wood Products.  The clip below is one of several tutorials they have for teaching how to build, finish and install the real wood display shelf.




Maple is a dense and non-porous wood. The die provides a more consistent color than a typical wood stain would. You can think of the pigment in die like what grains of sand are to gravel. The pigments in die are much smaller than standard stains. They tend to absorb and provide a better color than your standard wood stain.

How To Antique Finish A Wood CorbelOnce the die has had sufficient time to dry, step two involves applying oil based stain to the corbel shelf bracket using your paint brush. You want to work the color into all of the areas of the corbel in order to highlight and accentuate the depth of the carving.

Flood a heavy coating of the finishing stain onto the corbel countertop support. Wait about twenty minutes. Wipe it off of the areas you can get to and leave it in the locations that are more difficult to wipe.

You can remove more of the color with steel-wool if you desire to have the wood be a little lighter. When you do this, you can give the woodworking piece a more evident contrast that will actually make it look as if it were a hundred years old. The remaining darker colors will give the final finish a nice antique look.

How To Stain A Wood Corbel

The final step in applying finish to an unfinished corbel is spraying on polyurethane. Once you begin to apply the clear coating, you will notice how much more enriched the maple piece looks. You will begin to see more of the contrast. The polyurethane finish will give the real wood, stained corbel shelf-support a nice protective finish. You can get more information on how finish real wood corbels supports by visiting the Osborne Woodworking company.

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