You might check out this site, they carry glazes and offer great info.

http://www.homesteadfinishing.com/

Our shop works mostly in waterbase finishing and we do a lot of glaze work.  Glazes are translucent and have a longer open time and are meant to be manipulated with brushes, graining tools, rags/plastic sheeting, or anything that helps you achieve the look you want.

Here is a simplified schedule of what we might do, using waterbase materials.

After the wood is stained, we spray on two coats of sealer, let dry, then lightly sand out nibs.

Apply the glaze with a brush (chip brushes are OK). With approximately a 3-4 foot square piece of loosely wadded up cheesecloth or lint-free cotton fabric, the glaze is manipulated by being blotted, fluffed, and wiped off using an artistic eye. A special brush called a badger blender is lightly tickled over the surface in a very quick back-and-forth motion to blend/blur the glaze and to remove any hint as to what tool was used.

Keep a spray bottle with water handy to lightly dampen the cheesecloth. It can also be used to lightly mist the work area if the glaze is drying too fast to be manipulated. Work in sections and apply glaze in a small enough area to allow it to be worked without drying too fast. If the weather conditions are very dry, it can be very hard to work the glaze. Retarders/extenders are available to enhance the open time. Sometimes its just best to wait for more favorable humidity conditions if the technique you are using is difficult or detailed. Keep excess glaze from building up on the badger blender by periodically wiping off on cheesecloth. We may do more than 1 layer of glazing to create the effect we want or to enhance the depth. Protect each layer with a coat of sealer and when done, topcoat with clear coats to build protection and enhance your artwork.

We use Golden's Acrylic Glazes and clear Acrylic Glazing Liquid which can be custom-colored with acrylic paints, universal tints, and/or dyes. Their Asphaltum glaze is great to achieve an old "dirty" look.
Golden glazes

A few of the colors most useful for wood finishes are available at Target Coatings or can be found elsewhere on the Web.

Here is a badger blender

Glazing examples of our work. (All work done by Mark Ellis Studio.)

Stained and glazed kitchen refinish. Original finish was 1980's golden oak.
before
after
complete

Painted white mantel was doing nothing to enhance the carved details. We painted it metallic gold and glazed it to give it a cast bronze look.
close-up
finished

Rob, Give it a try. Glazing can really make some projects look great.

After sealing the stain, apply the dark grain filler (we would use a waterborne filler). Sealing before the filler will allow it to be in the pores only and not muddy your wood surface. Then seal again and go on to glazing. Should work out just fine.

Professional badger blending brushes can be expensive, but I've seen cheaper imitation badger blenders for under $40. Even seen them at Lowe's.

I ordered the Bartley dark wood paste filler. Thanks.

The General Finishes Java gel stain is what I thought of when I saw the photo you posted.  I didn't mention it because you said you wanted to stain and glaze.

Try it and let me know what you think, I think it will be real close to the look you want.

Tom.

This may not be a problem for you but sometimes the solvents in a hand applied layer can redissolve/soften your previous color coat enough to disturb the look. Make samples and test every step. Spraying your sealer is more forgiving if this is a problem. Do you have access to spraying equipment?

Is your sanding sealer compatible with the other products? In our shop, we like to use Zinsser's SealCoat over any oil-based stains/glazes or as a barrier to help seal in any previous contaminants when refinishing. The SealCoat is a dewaxed shellac and makes an excellent barrier coat.  We thin it with denatured alcohol approx. 30-35% to make a thin wash coat that we spray on in a thin coat. If you are using waterborne stains/glazes, a waterborne sealer would be good. We use General Finishes' Enduro Sanding Sealer. It sands really easily.



Don't worry about keeping the sealer out of the crevices. The glaze will still stay in the low spots and also add color to the surfaces. Just wipe back as much as you desire.



It is too easy to burn through any applied color layers with a power sander. Light hand sanding with 320 or finer allows you to easily see your progress and hopefully not go too far.

Again, make samples and test everything. Make sure you are happy with the finished look before you start on your project piece. The stains and gel stains may have enough resins in them to lock them to the surface and not be easily disturbed when applying another layer. Testing will let you know.

Yep, I will let you know how it goes. Thanks Tony it all sounds good. I do not have access to any spray equipment, and all the stains and sealers I bought are all oil based.

Tony, your work is inspirational, thanks for the tutorial I'm going to try it. Everything seems to be figured wood right now, I think it's way overdone and frankly getting boring.  (not to mention expensive)

I'm not too happy with my progress thus far. I probably won't be posting pictures of this. I'm not getting the look I want, but it will be good enough for the bathroom vanity.

Rob,

Did you do any test panels as you progressed with development of your finishing system?  I find the use of test panels very helpful.  And writing a few notes so I can refer later to them.

The finished cabinets look great to me!

Dave R.

Rob,

Gutsy move using your RO sander on the veneer.  I'm glad it came out well and that your wife likes it.

Dave R.