Sapele - to Tung or not to Tung ?

[Steve1]

I have not worked with Sapele before, but will be doing a couple of bookcases in a while.
I have been experimenting with a few finishes.

What I have concluded is that I will be topping it with water based poly, and prefer the look/feel with a grain filler.  Also, I like the color of super-blond shellac on it better than garnet shellac.

I have also tried to first put down a few coats of tung oil. 
Maybe I am mistaken, but I feel I should be seeing a deeper, richer color with the tung oil first, then shellac (then grain filler, then poly).
But really, I can't see a difference if I omit the tung oil.  Both look real good, really glisten, change colors as I change my viewing angle, but I don't see a difference.

Maybe I need larger sample pieces, or there is a problem with my procedure, but is this consistent with what others have found ?  See photo of samples below.  The upper piece has tung oil base.
[attachimg=1]

 

[Tom the Remodeler]

I have not worked with Sapele before, but will be doing a couple of bookcases in a while.
I have been experimenting with a few finishes.

What I have concluded is that I will be topping it with water based poly, and prefer the look/feel with a grain filler.  Also, I like the color of super-blond shellac on it better than garnet shellac.

I have also tried to first put down a few coats of tung oil. 
Maybe I am mistaken, but I feel I should be seeing a deeper, richer color with the tung oil first, then shellac (then grain filler, then poly).
But really, I can't see a difference if I omit the tung oil.  Both look real good, really glisten, change colors as I change my viewing angle, but I don't see a difference.

Maybe I need larger sample pieces, or there is a problem with my procedure, but is this consistent with what others have found ?  See photo of samples below.  The upper piece has tung oil base.
[attachimg=1]

In terms of getting a deeper color, I'm running a sample of Saicos Premium UV on Sapele to see how it holds up to the weather. The board has two applications of the Saicos UV, and after ~9 months both the indoor and outdoor samples are a deep red color.

I believe the Saicos is derived from the Thistle plant, so in concept it should be similar to other plant-derived oils like Tung oil or Linseed oil. It did take about 2-3 months for that deep red color to develop. For the Saicos, I wouldn't top it with anything, instead preferring to just apply another coat every year, but that's just me.... 

 

[ChuckM]

Not much help on Tung, because I've never used it on Sapele, but I use a lot of Sapele. I always get great results without using shellac, grain filler, etc.:

Just a few coats of (thinned) boiled linseed oil plus a few protective coats of polyurethane or Arm-R-Seal (I prefer semi-gloss or matt):

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

The tone turns more golden and gets richer and richer over time. If you want to slow it down, place the piece away from direct sunlight.