Cherry coloring

[Jim Colombo]

I have a Cherry slab that looks like White Oak. How can I get some of the cherry color into it? Will putting it in sunlight help.

Thanks

[Steve Schoene]

Putting it in sunlight might help, but in many cases cherry that light will be sap wood and it will never develop the full cherry coloration.

[glenn bradley]

If it is bordering on white, I agree with Steve. However, you say a slab and it is odd to get a very large piece of cherry with that much sapwood. How big is it? Is it natural edge on one side? Really just curious.

Now, as to your question . . . I agree with Steve that sapwood is never going to darken like cherry heartwood. I purposely use sapwood in many of my pieces with the confidence that the sapwood will NOT darken ;-)

301690301689

You could, of course, color the material to be anything you like but, that spoils the purpose of using cherry IMHO. You can find plenty of 'cherry finished' poplar and soft maple at the furniture stores. I would be inclined to save the slab for something that will take advantage of the coloration but, I shy away from coloring wood in general. None of this really solves your issue unless your piece will be OK with enough coloring to get you the look you are after.

When I do color things I tend toward dyes as they are inexpensive and easy to mix for just the color you are after. I will say that thing that we all want to hear BEFORE we apply the finish to our project . . . test board, test board, test board. ;)

[Jim Colombo]

Thanks for the replies guys. The slab is 8"x96"x4/4 and not natural edge. I bought it at Woodworkers Source on sale thinking I could age it into the Cherry color.

[John TenEyck]

8" wide is hardly a slab. I agree with the others that if it's as white as white oak you probably have a piece of sapwood. It was on sale, after all.

John