I normally work with walnut because of the great appearance of the grain and the ease of staining (I usually want the finish to appear more antiquish (sp?) without minor surface defects such as sanding marks showing up in the final product.
However, I would also like to produce projects using cherry because of its great grain but am reluctant because of not knowing how to stain and finish cherry similar to what one would normally expect from Thomasville Furniture or Williamsburg Furniture.
I would appreciate any input that would allow me to understand how to stain a light- colored wood to a very dark color without loosing the attractive grain of cherry.
Thank you,
wku
Replies
I wouldn't set mid-range factory furniture as the target to be emulated. Factory furniture often colors cherry furniture very dark because they do not want to match the wood, or even eliminate sapwood. I don't know exactly their finishing schedules but I'd expect some dyes to pull different wood colors together, and to provide basic darkening. Pigmented stain can cause "blotching" in cherry, though this "pre-figure" can look quite attractive and "cherry like". I expect there would be toned finishes applied in several layers to achieve evenness regardless of the particular character of the wood. All these factory finishes do, in my opinion, obscure the grain to a significant degree.
Cherry will darken naturally in a relatively short period of time. BLO encourages the darkening, and a very nice look can be achieved with a dark shellac (garnet, for example) over one light coat of BLO. It won't be as dark as the factory furniture for a few years but the richness of the natural cherry is very nice. The key really is very well matched cherry. A good "suntan" where the object is given a few days of direct sun--being sure to turn it to catch all sides evenly, can hasten the darkening.
Frankly if you need "cherry" furniture to be dark from day one, make it of maple or other close pored wood and use a water based dye to achieve the darkness.
Check out another post in this section named "Finishing Cherry" and I think you will find most of the info that you seek.
Ron
I asked a similar question as Ronaway just referred to called "Finishing Cherry" (posted in the last couple of weeks). Ronaway's post is invaluable and supported with his impressive photos to demonstrate possible results using the techniques as described. I'm having good success.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled