Darkening cherry examples

[Brian D Anderson]

So I grabbed my router wrench the other day and noticed how much the cherry on my router table had darkened in a year (technically 13 months)

I thought it would be interesting to see if anyone else had examples of how much cherry darkens.

-Brian

[jared herbert]

I have some cherry that darkened in a matter of days and markedly so. I also have a board that came from a sawmill 50 miles north of Duluth and I would assume that the log came from right around there. It is very light in color and does not darken at near the rate of the other I have if at all. It is definitely cherry, it smells like it when you cut it and the grain is very cherry like and it was sold as cherry originally, I re ceived is as a gift. Does anyone else observe this? Jared

[Christopher Pine]

Well you have a shadowed olace for your tools. Literally! very nice!

[Maik Tobin]

It has been my experience that not all cherry is created equally.
There is some kind of mineral in the soil in Western PA and along he Alleghany mountain range. For some reason, the cherru that comes from that region tends to be far darker and redder than most other cherry. I prefer the darker cherry, so I buy as much as I can that originates from that region.

[Dennis Lopeman]

That is a great example of Cherry Darkening! I'm interested cuz I'm currently in the midst of doing all my kitchen in cherry.

As an experiment - I also put some unfinished cherry outside in the sun and it darkened very quickly - couple hours.

Also be aware that sometimes Pacific Red Maple is sold as cherry, or a cherry substitute. It will NOT darken.

[Dave Anthony]

These are images of molding taken from the same board, same finish. There is a window to the right. Picture quality is not good, but the color is pretty close. The room has a fair amount of cherry: molding, crown, a border on the floor, window sills, & an entertainment center. It's all darkened quite a bit over the years, but the effect is not uniform. Sometimes part of the grain darkens more, its one of the things I like about cherry.

[Dennis Lopeman]

Cool. It sure "pops out the grain" in those filled nail holes more!! LOL

Just playing - I really like what you have done with all the woodwork. They just don't build houses like this anymore. When my parents moved down here to Georgia back in 82, the house they bought (John Wieldlin sp?) did all the interior with real solid wood doors, stained, not painted! and baseboards were all wood stained, too!! Now all the houses are cardboard MDF and painted white. Utter crap. I'll slowly be ripping all mine out and replacing with stained wood. I have a few crown router bits, too. So it'll all be custom!!

[Dennis Lopeman]

which kinda leads to the question of whether one can "fasten" their moldings to the wall like this with something like Liquid Nails...

oh oh... thread hijak... sorry... :o

[Dave Anthony]

That's certainly a valid point about the nail holes, though I can't imagine trying to hang crown w/liquid nails. I started out filling them, then wound up just leaving most unfilled. The color match was very close when filled, but the cherry darkens & the filler doesn't, so even if the color match was perfect it wouldn't last. So what's the best way to handle nail/brad holes in cherry trim?

[Dennis Lopeman]

Yup - thats kinda what I was getting at... you can match the filler it the time its hung, but then the wood WILL change color anyway... So I dont know, unless you were careful about your hole placement and used cherry plugs

or you could concoct a filler made with cherry chips/shavings/dust... maybe use slow epoxy as the base... with dye to get the initial color...

I have this stain-able wood filler from Minwax (I think it was) - you could use that AFTER you finish... then as the wood darkens, just darken the holes manually over time.

Anyone else?

[Jeff Mackay]

I've tried just about every cherry filler on the market. None match as good as mixing cherry sawdust with whatever finish you're using. Even with homemade filler, you'll still be able to see the filled nail holes.

Jeff

[Glen Butler]

If you are going to use a filler it is better to go darker than lighter. This is tough as cherry darkens but if you went a few shades darker than the projected color it would be better than matching the undarkened cherry.

[Terry Achey]

gee...I'm mostly impressed with a cherry router cabinet :eek:...... sweet!

[Dennis Lopeman]

@ Glenn = great idea - i didn't think of that. At least the dots might look like wood inclussions rather than light dots...

@ Terry = I was thinking that too! I also noticed the Purple Heart edges! I remember seeing someone's workbench made with Purple heart - looked more like furniture than a work bench! That guy made violins, if I remember correctly... now I'm going to have to find it again! LOL

[Rick Markham]

I agree... I want to see the whole kitten caboodle, Cherry looks awesome with that bit of purpleheart I spy in your photo... Don't tease us... show us the goods ! :p

[Brian D Anderson]

Oh, I've posted pictures of my RT cabinet and outfeed table before.

There's a long story as to why they're made with a rainbow of hardwoods.

There are a few more pictures here too: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/15152

The outfeed table has a cherry face frame and it's actually a good example of the different shades of red cherry can have. The outfeed cherry is a little less red than the RT cherry.

-Brian

[Rick Markham]

Wow, that's awesome! I really dig it, is that a foot switch for you router table? I really like the handles you chose for all the doors/ drawers, those are awesome! Maybe It's my eccentricity speaking but that has to be one of the coolest workstations I have seen.

[Dennis Lopeman]

Great display of wood! I like that idea! If you are consulting on making some piece, you could just point at the different wood types during your explanations!!

I see you also have a TRITON. I love mine!

[Brian D Anderson]

Yeah, that's a foot switch for the router . . . which is actually broken at the moment. You get what you pay for at Harbor Freight sometimes (though Woodcraft sells the exact foot switch for twice the price . . . anyway, I digress) I have another one waiting to replace it, just haven't found the time/motivation.

I got the handles for less than a dollar each at knobsandpulls.com Check out their clearance sales.

I had the same idea on using the cabinets as sort of a display of all the types of woods. I briefly considered trying out different finishes as well, though there are way too many options, so I just went with one finish.

The only down side to all of this, is that every shop cabinet I build from here on out has to keep the theme going. :D

BTW, the short story on the rainbow of hardwoods is that I used the outfeed table as practice for building kitchen cabinets (lowers). I had been given a large number of cutoffs from a cabinet shop for free when I was just starting out. Turns out they were the perfect length for drawer fronts. I bought one cherry board to do the face frames because I had never used cherry at the time. Totally over the top, but I do enjoy looking at them when I'm down in the shop.

-Brian