sun staining on cherry

[Kerry Medeiros]

How many of you are familiar with the situation where you start a personal project, and then it gets "'shelved" while you work on other people's jobs? Oh yeah, and it's months before you get a chance to finish it. See below for my story.

I built a new house last year and built my own cabinets. We were on a deadline to get in so the cabinets were installed minus the doors and drawer fronts. The doors/fronts were built a few months back out of beautiful cherry. Then they got put to the side so that I could continue on a few other jobs that resulted in money coming in rather than the reverse. Now its back to the doors and as I begin to unstack them I notice that they are "sun stained". Whatever portion of the door that was exposed is now considerably darker than the portion of the door that was in the pile. I began sanding the doors where they are darker with 220 but it is having little effect. I could get more aggressive with the sanding but I want to see if there is another solution first. Is there a way to reverse this? What if I leave all the doors exposed to the light? Will it even out over time? Please don't tell the doors are now fire wood.

Any tips?

Kerry

[Jim Becker]

It will even out with time.

[James Baker SD]

I made a set of Shaker boxes out of cherry and stacked them on top of each other near a window. Same thing happened. When I saw it, I unstacked them and set them all in the window and it was only a few weeks until they were even toned again. They had only Liberon oil finish.

James

[Mike Henderson]

It will even out fairly quickly, even if your cabinets don't get any direct sunlight. Cherry (except for sapwood) darkens with age no matter what you do. I like the look of aged cherry so to my eye, cherry furniture gets better looking every year.

Since it's your cabinets and not some client, don't try to sand them - just use them as they are. In time (maybe six months, maybe a year) you won't know there were dark stripes on the cabinets.

Mike

[doug faist]

Kerry - another vote for some patience. A few days in the sun should just about even out the colors.

Doug

[David DeCristoforo]

What you are calling "sun stain", many of us refer to as "patina", something for which cherry is famous for developing quickly. As has already been stated, this should even out over time although it may be a while before the lighter areas "catch up". It's going to depend on how much sunlight they get in their installed location. I have a lot of fun in the summer, showing people how quickly cherry colors up when exposed to sunlight. I put a quarter on a piece of freshly sanded cherry and put it in the sun for a while. Then after maybe an hour or so, I go and move the quarter and you can already see a circle. As Mike said, the colors in cherry just keep getting richer and richer as time goes on. And other than really getting into the wood with a corse abrasive or by planing, there is no way to reverse (or prevent) this.

[Kerry Medeiros]

I forgot to mention these doors have no oil/stain/finish applied. I take it that I need to wait for the color to even out before I begin the finishing process?

[Mike Henderson]

No, they'll darken just fine under the finish. Unless you paint them, the wood will darken.

Mike

[Jerry Olexa]

As others have said, they will even out with time...natural process with cherry..