cherry color

[Rasmus Petersen]

I have a plate from a customer, he says it´s cherry. but my question is how to get the dark red color out in the cherry ? the cherry blanks i have are much lighter in color.

its the plate in the background that's cherry the other one is maple an just a prototype for the cherry ones im making for the customer.

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[Nate Davey]

Rasmus, once they are exposed to sunlight they will get their color back. If you're in a hurry, set them in the sun for a while.

[Richard Jones]

Rasmus,

His sample plate looks like it's had some color added to it. Sure doesn't look like natural cherry to me, even after some aging. Maybe it's my monitor, but I have applied cherry tinted Danish oil to cherry pieces before and it's identical to that.

Simple way to darken cherry is to put it out in the sun, but I don't think the color will match what he gave you.

As always, my $.02.............

Rich

[Jon Nuckles]

My initial reaction is the same as Rich's; the color in the picture looks more like stain than natural darkening of cherry.

[Rasmus Petersen]

my bet was also some kind of stain.. will investigate further :)

[Steve Vaughan]

For me, I've had great luck with Watco Natural bringing out the cherry. While some cherry might be darker naturally than others, the DO helps it darken some, and then time does the rest. The plate in the background looks to me like plain cherry, without stain. I've seen lighter, and I've seen darker, all without stain.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Color matching cherry has always been a challenge for furniture makers and even makers of fine kitchen cabinets. The range of colors cherry exhibits varies a lot. Not to mention that age will darken the wood. I do not recommend staining cherry. It can blotch badly. Besides, age will continue to darken it even more. Choose a good piece of wood and sand it well. Use a coat of linseed oil to bring out the grain then apply your favorite finish. Let time do the rest. If you insist on stain, be sure to do a test on a piece from the same batch prepared the same way.
faust

[Bill Wiggins]

I put some cherry trim on parts of my boat. I was shocked at how dark it became.

[Jon Nuckles]

I've seen darker cherry than that, but it is the too-red tone that makes me think it is stained. I would never advise someone to stain cherry unless they have to match an existing piece that is stained or if a customer specifically requests it. That is what I understood Rasmus to be saying he has to do. In any case, unless the photo color is off, I don't think that is natural cherry color.

[Robert Newton]

An other way to speed the aging process is to put it in a tanning booth. Works good but then what is it doing to your skin?

[Prashun Patel]

I'll go one step further: that red tone makes me think it has been dyed - not stained. The color is even and mute. It appears to me that it's been dyed, and any top coat is extremely thin.

When colormatching, the best advice is to test, test, test...

[Sean Hughto]

I have some cherry that got that dark, but it's taken many years of oxidation. There may be no stain, but simply a piece that happened to came from a tree that tended to go darker than most and has also been in the UV/oxygen for many years. Hard to match without some luck in your cherry stock and TIME.