Finishing cherry that will live like a vampire?

[Andrew Wayland]

So let me ask a really stupid question: when I buy furniture made of cherry, and it comes with that nice reddish brown: is that how cherry actually ages? Or do you think they stain it to be that color?

And say I do stain the wood: does the color continue to darken still? Or does the stain keep the color for time

I'm looking to get a jump on this project tomorrow

[Jim Becker]

Production "cherry" isn't always cherry (they use other species to save money) and it's likely been colored regardless to get a nice, even shade of what folks thing cherry looks like. Take a look at what Thos Moser offers...that's what real cherry looks like after building and a short time aging. It does get darker over time naturally, regardless of the light.

If you choose to stain/dye, yes...the underlying cherry will still darken over time...

[Bill McNiel]

The blotch control: is that a homemade concoction? Or is it available someplace? I know I've seen wood conditioners for pre-stain use (general finishes etc).

Andrew,
Goggle "Charles Neal Blotch Control". He sells the product online, also has a YouTube video on using it.
Regards - Bill

[John TenEyck]

Cherry isn't really red. Definitely not when it's new and even when it ages it usually has a brownish tint. What you see offered at most furniture stores has been dyed/stained/shot with toner or, as Jim said, isn't even made from cherry. Most people don't know what real cherry looks like and wouldn't want it if they did because the color varies so much.

Take a look at real cherry with a natural finish:

http://vermontwoodsstudios.com/produ...e#.WD805Fxv7Kg

Or one of my humble pieces, finished with oil and wax, and several years old:



and another one, again finished with oil and wax, which was more than 10 years old when I took this picture:





John

[Andrew Wayland]

Do you recall what oil and wax you used? That's the color I want!

[John TenEyck]

Do you recall what oil and wax you used? That's the color I want!

I used a couple of applications of Watco Danish Oil and Johnson's paste wax a few days later. I've never waxed them again. Keep in mind that these photos were taken several years after the pieces were finished. They weren't this dark when first finished. In fact, I remember finding a light spot under something I had left on the little table for several months.

John

[Dan Hulbert]

10 or 15 years ago I built a sewing center for my wife our of a mix of solid and veneered cherry plywood. I followed a finishing schedule from a Jeff Jewett book. Unfortunately, I loaned out the book and have never seen it again. The finish process actually started with a TransTint yellow dye. The several coats of other stuff that fails my memory but top coated with amber shellac. It was one of the most complicated finishing schedules I've ever used, but the results were great. The cabinet had that great aged cherry look right from the start. It still looks great after living in no sun environments for all these years.
I think the yellow dye to start things off really helped to even out the color variations.

[Stan Calow]

Here's my version of the apparently the same table in cherry. Its about 10 years old. A couple of coats of BLO, then four coats of Waterlox OSF, wiped on. As you can see the top and sides/legs don't match in color, so if doing it again I would dye/stain just a bit.
IMG_1153.jpg

[Dave Haughs]

A quality gel stain will work best for cherry versus a liquid stain. A few coats of a good polyurethane will help protect the wood without the need to purchase spray equipment to apply it.

Agree - and it will darken over time. Additionally staining cherry can be challenging as it can end up blotchy which is way worse (to my mind) than light.

Dense hardwoods like cherry and maple are hard to stain/dye with blotching UNLESS you spray the stain because spraying gives one a lot more control over the amount of applied stain PLUS there isn't any physical contact that a sponge, brush, rag, what-have-you provides.

I've had VERY good luck with gel stains and cherry. I've never had an issue with blotching and gel stains on cherry. The last cherry piece I did, i used General Finishes gel stain. Brushed it on with a foam brush and wiped it off with a shop towel. Practice on scraps.

As others have said though, it WILL darken over time even once it's stained and sealed.

[Andrew Wayland]

I've tried a few samples so far. BLO looks good, albeit a bit light. I just tried some General finishes Gel stains too: Georgian Cherry (looks to have a purple hue) Candelite (not terrible) and Brown Mahogany (still drying). I'm not thrilled by any of them in particular.

Id be tempted to try and mix some colors, but I'd have to make one large batch to keep, which may be a bit too daunting.

[Prashun Patel]

Coming out of my corner here: Don't do it.

What are you using for your topcoat? If it were me, I'd use Waterlox Original Sealer Finish and be done. It's a tad darker than other top coats, but not as dark as staining. The two times I stained cherry, I regretted it.

[Andrew Wayland]

Coming out of my corner here: Don't do it.

What are you using for your topcoat? If it were me, I'd use Waterlox Original Sealer Finish and be done. It's a tad darker than other top coats, but not as dark as staining. The two times I stained cherry, I regretted it.

Waterlox is an expensive gamble: I think it's $35 to purchase.... which is a bitnmore than I'd like to spend for a sample. Do you have any pictures of your results?

also; I have several different sources of cherry: so I'd hate to have a ton of different colors showing...

[Sam Murdoch]

Here is a cherry bench with Waterlox Original Sealer Finish on it. This was about a week old at the time of the photo. It has certainly darkened since then but only in value. The color is the color - not anywhere near as red as what non woodworkers think of as cherry. I love it !

[Andrew Wayland]

That's not a bad color. Think It'd be darker if put on top of BLO (if you can even do that)?

[John TenEyck]

BLO on cherry leads to blotching, at least it did on this comparative set of samples:



Arm-R-Seal gloss on the left, the middle is Sealcoat shellac then ARS, and the right is BLO then ARS. To me, the BLO one looks bad.

John