In over my head!

[Jason Christenson]

I don't think I mentioned it before but I work for a moving company. We got this damaged coffee table in and instead of taking it to the cabinet maker to have the top refinished, I decided to give it a whack myself. I stripped it yesterday and I think I'm in over my head. I have two questions: First, I don't think the typical Minwax stain that I usually buy is "opaque" enough to make the bare wood in in curry 004 look like the finished wood in curry coffee table 003. I have run into this problem before, is there a stain I can get that will do the job? Second, if you look at the picture of the edge of the table, it looks to me like bare wood (or whatever it is) then a layer of something like paint, then a layer of the cherry color and the finish, can you tell me what I'm looking at and how to recreate it?

The good news is that at any time I can give up and take it to the cabinet maker I mentioned before and let him deal with it.

Any help you can provide will be much appreciated. Sorry about the lousy photography.

Jason

[Steve Schoene]

Matching a factory finished piece is quite difficult since it is likely that a multi-step process that used both pigmented and dye toned finishes was employeed. These must be spray applied to be acceptably even.

If this is a customer's piece I would bail and seek a professional finisher.