Carpentry and Woodworking - How to get black shaker finish?

I am trying to imitate the black finish that is seen on shaker style furniture. Ethan Allen furniture has several pieces with this finish.
Usually the legs are matte black and the top is natural or stained wood. The black matte finish is the one I am asking about. It doesn't look like a pigmented paint - latex or oil. It looks possibly like a pigmented lacquer or a pigmented stain or something. The ones I have seen are pretty nice, smooth and without marks.
I wonder if there is a pigmented polyurethane or is lacquer the best choice?

Thanks

The closest to the black finish you are speaking about can be reproduced by spraying a primer the wood surface and then spraying the primer with black lacquer paint. You may need to prime and sand the primer several times to get a finish you are happy with before you spray the paint. Remember, whatever surface your primer shows the paint will show also. Other than the above comment I do not know of any other way to produce the finish you are asking for. cm

The way I've usually done this type of finish is sanding sealer - usually several coats to completely fill the grian of the wood and give me a dead smooth surface - each coat sanded after application;

a black lacquer (sheen doesn't matter) to cover the areas needed;

a flat lacquer top coat - all coats spray applied.

FYI - the reason I say sheen doesn't matter in the black is because only the final coat of a piece determines the sheen.

there are a couple of threads on the www.woodburner.com forum about ebonizing stains you can make at home, maybe that would help.

Thanks for the replies, I am just now done building the project and ready to start the finish.

George,
I like your method of using sanding sealer and then black lacquer followed by a clear lacquer in the desired sheen.

What if I wanted to do it this way, but with a polyurethane?
I assume I should stay polyurethane all the way, using a poly sanding sealer first? If so, then I'm not sure what type of black polyurethane to use for the color coat.

Is it OK to use lacquer SS, lacquer color coat and then poly for the final, or am I asking for trouble by mixing types of paint?

On both lacquer or polyurethane, what do you recommend as far as brands and types of both? I haven't used lacquer for many years and in those days it was very prone to yellowing. I assume this is not the case anymore?

You can't mix lacquer and oil based poly = choose one or the other.

Acrylic (water base) poly is a possibility, but I still wouldn't use it over a lacquer sealer.

Standard lacquer will yellow - what you want is a water clear (it says that on the label) lacquer. This has NO amber cast and statys clear.

Acylic polies (including minwax polycrylic) also are water clear and stay that way - non yellowing.

The critical part of the operation is smoothness. Every little distortion under the black will show up like a neon sign once a finish is applied.

Sherwin Williams is where I bought all my lacquer prodicts when I was in the business full time, although several other ocmpanies offer comparable products, including Devoe and McCloskey.

I currently use Benjamin Moore Polyurethane. It flows better than Minwax (at least for me).