I’m building a blanket chest with a solid cherry top, made of 4 boards — first time I’ve worked with cherry except as a veneer. Like an idiot, I didn’t check my Fine Woodworking resources before attempting to stain the wood, and after applying 2 coats of Minwax cherry stain, I’ve got a blotchy mess. Is there any way to recover from this — can I sand out the stain and start over trying to finish this top, or should I punt and just make a whole new top (ouch$$$$$)?
Thanks in advance to anyone who had this problem and can give me a steer.
Mark Z
Winchester, VA
Replies
Why do you want to stain Cherry ?
If you leave it alone it will take a very nice deep red color in no time !
C.
I take your point, but here's my dilemma -- I designed the blanket chest to match some other furniture in our living room, also mostly cherry, so the front/back/sides of the chest have panels that are made from 1/2 inch cherry veneer plywood. After some experimentation, I stained the panels with the same Minwax stain to get the best match with our existing cherry pieces, then put a few coats of polyurethane on the panels before I glued up the carcass. The stained plywood panels look great. So I figured that I should stain the solid cherry top to get a good match, which is when I ran into trouble.If I can sand out the blotchy stain on the top, is there some other non-stain treatment that will allow me to match the color with the stained panels?
Starting from cleaned-up wood, apply a seal coat of 1# - 1.5# cut dewaxed shellac. You can thin Zinsser sealcoat. I use extra or ultra pale flakes. I use a padding cloth (not a brush) to get a thin even coat - but that says more about my brushing skills than pro/con of brushing v. padding.. This has always worked well for me in preventing the blotching. You can still apply the stain over the sealcoat.
And - yes - I have stained perfectly good cherry. The "vote" in the house was for the cherry to look already aged, without waiting for nature to take its course. Ironically, turned out very well, because within a year we sold that house, and the cherry and stained glass kitchen cabinets basically took the husband out of the equation.
Thanks a bunch, I'm going to give that a try. Just got back from the store with some stripping gel, so I'll use that to see if I can remove some of the blotchy stain, and then do the seal coat. Since I already stained part of the blanket chest, I may try some Mission wipe-on gel stain in cherry to darken the top just a little bit.
BigZ -
FWIW - I know what has worked for me. I have never used Howie's approach, but it makes a lot of sense. I'm pretty confident that he has broader knowldege and experience in finishing than I do.
BWT - a different approach I have used once is similar in concept to Howie's - I put down Minwax cherry stain (which kinda follows his amber dye, but that was before I ever tried dye) followed by shellac.
Cherry is both a difficult wood to stain, and one which lots of folks think looks best if let to darken naturally, as it will over the next year or so.
I would remove the old stain, but not by sanding. I would use a chemical stripper, which should remove the pigmented part of the stain pretty easily. (First, if you just completed the staining, try wiping off as much stain as you can with mineral spirits, or even better with lacquer thinner.) Where you go next will depend on how well the dye component of the Minwax comes out of the wood.
Steve -- great idea, and thanks for the suggestion. I'll give that a try.
If you get the top to match now it will not match once the cherry darkens which it well do no way to stop it.
After removing the pigment component of the stain, you will probably be left with a dark color still in the wood. Minwax oil based stains contain both a pigment and a dye stain. Chemical paint strippers do not remove dye stains well. To remove or greatly lighten the residual color, use a chlorine bleach. A fresh bottle of Clorox will work. Reduce is about four parts distilled water to one part bleach. Wet the surface and keep it wet until the dye color has be removed. Let if fully dry for a couple of days. Sand and then re-do your finishing process.
Let me also say that staining cherry can be problematic. It's just a function of the wood. My process is to use a light amber dye stain followed by an amber shellac. Then I will use a gel stain to get the final color. Finally, I use a good non-poly varnish.
A final caution, if you plan to put cloth or clothing items in your chest, do not apply any oil based finish to the inside surfaces of the chest or top. Oil based finishes off-gas almost forever and the odor will permeate cloth items. Use a shellac or a waterborne finish.
Hey Howie - how ya doin?
Kinda Groundhog Day - you and I have had this conversation how many times?
heh-heh-heh
Kent
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