There's a couple of different approaches I'm aware of. The first,
obviously, is to stain it, getting it dark enough that any color
changes later won't be apparent. Gel stains tend to work well - that's
how I did my first piece in cherry.
While I was pleased with the result at the time, I later felt the look
to be rather "artificial", and was stumped for a solution until I came
across this piece of advice:
After it is assembled, scraped and sanded, sunbathe your furniture. Not
in the heat of noon during high summer, obviously - spring and early
winter are best, or early morning at the beginning of summer. You don't
want so much heat - or direct sunlight - that the wood begins to warp.
Do that for a couple of hours each day for a few days, and then apply
finish (I prefer Danish oil, your tastes may vary). You'll find that
the sunbathed cherry is rich and dark (this works on cherry ply, also).
It will continue to darken over the years if exposed to sunlight, but
under normal indoor conditions that change will be very incremental,
and barely noticable.
Just make very sure not to leave anything on the cherry while it's
sunbathing! A newspaper left on a tabletop will leave a "tan line" that
will be impossible to equalize with the rest of the surface without
sanding back to an unexposed layer of wood.
"Demosthenes" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> There's a couple of different approaches I'm aware of. The first,
> obviously, is to stain it, getting it dark enough that any color
> changes later won't be apparent. Gel stains tend to work well - that's
> how I did my first piece in cherry.
>
> While I was pleased with the result at the time, I later felt the look
> to be rather "artificial", and was stumped for a solution until I came
> across this piece of advice:
>
> After it is assembled, scraped and sanded, sunbathe your furniture. Not
> in the heat of noon during high summer, obviously - spring and early
> winter are best, or early morning at the beginning of summer. You don't
> want so much heat - or direct sunlight - that the wood begins to warp.
>
> Do that for a couple of hours each day for a few days, and then apply
> finish (I prefer Danish oil, your tastes may vary). You'll find that
> the sunbathed cherry is rich and dark (this works on cherry ply, also).
>
>
> It will continue to darken over the years if exposed to sunlight, but
> under normal indoor conditions that change will be very incremental,
> and barely noticable.
>
> Just make very sure not to leave anything on the cherry while it's
> sunbathing! A newspaper left on a tabletop will leave a "tan line" that
> will be impossible to equalize with the rest of the surface without
> sanding back to an unexposed layer of wood.
I had a cherry table sitting in another shop where they had placed a
magazine on top which left "tan lines". I brought it back and set it
in a sunny window. It took a while but it did even out to where I
can't tell there were ever any there. The piece had a natural stain
with an OIL based poly, which I would think would make a difference
vs. water based. Jana