Aging oak cabinet doors for UV

[John Erickson]

I have a customer that wants to replace to Oak doors and drawer fronts on there kitchen cabinets, with years of aging from UV. I believe I have 2 options and I'm looking for suggestions/assistance which will give the best results.

1. Sand the cabinet frames of the cabinet boxes down to the wood removing the old finish. Using the same lacquer refinish both the doors and frames hoping the difference will be minimal.

2. Treat the new oak doors with something (similar to aging cherry with ammonia) to age oak compensating for the UV aging on the cabinet frames.

[Wayne Lomman]

Treat it as any other colour matching job. Stain the timber to suit and modify with a touch of colour in the 2nd last coat to simulate the yellowing of the lacquer. Cheers

[John TenEyck]

I've matched aged lacquer on red oak several times. Often just a coat of Sealcoat shellac and then my WB clearcoat comes out very close. For a more aged finish I have good luck putting some Transtint Honey Amber in the Sealcoat or the first coat of clear. Some times I've had to tweak it further with a little Medium Brown in the clearcoat. Make up some samples and let them be your guide.

All that said, what's you customer want, new looking oak or aged? I would let that guide what I did. From a selfish standpoint, stripping the faceframes is likely far less work, because then you can just apply new clearcoat w/o having to match anything.

John

[John Erickson]

Thanks guys, I'll try some samples as you suggested.