Make any sense to use cherry if you plan to stain?

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Hi All,

Does it make any sense to use cherry wood when you're going to stain in the end? Since cherry darkens over time you won't know what you'll end up with down the road. And it sometimes splotches with stain. Why not just use birch or maple and stain that instead. I like working with cherry but if you're going to stain what wood would you use? What am I missing here?

[Steve Cox]

Alder is a great choice if you're going to stain. If stained to the right color it looks like cherry and not nearly as expensive. One reason to use cherry and stain is if you want the look of cherry but you want to help it along the way to its darkened state rather than waiting years.

[Bill Arnold]

I agree with you about staining cherry. The only thing I do with cherry is couple of coats of hand-rubbed oil followed by varnish or lacquer for protection. Living in Florida provides plenty of sunshine year-round to kick-start the natural coloring process.

[Todd Burch]

Stain can be used for several reasons... to make one wood look like another... to make wood look like someting it would never otherwise be (like blue, or old looking in your lifetime)... to even out color differences in boards that you want to look the same... to match an existing piece or decor... or simply because that is what is desired.

Should women (or men for that matter) color their hair? Get suntans? Sometimes, coloring of any kind helps the base product.

I'm not against staining any wood if there's a good reason to do it. Sometimes, "I want to" is a good enough reason.

There's a large camp of woodworkers that feel specifically about not staining cherry. Not me. Sometimes you can have a piece that you've built that that says "Hey, look at my natural beauty - look at my grain and how my maker put me together". Or, you might have a piece that says "Oh my goodness - PLEASE - do something quick to me to take the attention OFF of my grain or proportions".

Cherry is a beautiful wood, but even Supermodels use makeup.

Stain can help any piece and hurt any piece. I say do whatever feels appropriate. Use and develop your design sense.

[Jim Becker]

As a normal rule, I do not use coloration on cherry...it's almost "sinful" in my mind. That said, I did use some dye on my recent mantle project purely because I could not depend upon UV to be present in the place it was going. In the future, I'd use a chemical oxidant for this purpose to avoid use of dye if I really had to speed things up, but prefer natual aging of this beautiful species. But that's me. Therefore, I agree with Todd and also say, "Do what feels appropriate."

[Mike Cutler]

Alan. I find that I gravitate toward the types of wood I am familiar with, by that I mean wood movement, grain structure,workability, stability, stainability, etc. If you are comfortable working with cherry,and have confidence in it I say stick with it.
A lot of furniture has been made with cherry and stained a darker shade for a variety of reasons. You won't be the first to do it.

[Ken Salisbury]

Putting stain on cherry would be like putting a burlap sack on Shania Twain

[John Gregory]

I agree with Ken.

[Todd Burch]

I think I could handle Shania Twain in a burlap sack...

[lou sansone]

gee .... looks like I am in the minority on this one.. I happen to like using water base dyes on cherry. At least this is my current thinking on it. I see lots of cherry that is naked ( all natural ) to me it looks naked IMHO.
I would not "stain" cherry with a pigment, and if that is what the post is about, then I agree with the rest of the posts. That is going to muddy it up. But I have found that dye if applied with some sensitivity, tends to bring out some of the figure or grain in cherry. I think for shaker types of furniture that undyed looks better, but for 18th century pieces I seems to just fit in better with a bunch of antiques. Interesting discussion
lou

[Steve Cox]

One other place that stain or dye makes sense with cherry is if you are trying to blend the wood. I have seen finishers (I'm not one of them) do some amazing things in blending sapwood with heartwood or making different colored boards all the same tone. Personally I prefer it natural but it depends on what you want to accomplish with the piece or (most importantly) what the customer wants

[JayStPeter]

Shania in a burlap sack sounds fine to me too.

I like working with cherry. So, I have used it on a project that wasn't meant to look like cherry. Not something I'll always do, but it worked well for the project. If Alder had been significantly cheaper, I would've gone with that. But, my local sawmill has Cherry cheaper than I can buy Alder at a wood dealer. Since I didn't have to match anything, it has aged particularly nice. I purposely colored it a little lighter than requested. I did tan my practice scraps outside for a few days to see how they would change. The piece is in a sunny area. I suspect the stain has started to fade, but it isn't noticeable with the Cherry darkening underneath.
Overall, I try to avoid stains by using the wood I want. But, there's not always a wood for the desired color and budget. In this case, a chocolate brown was desired ("not cherry" was specified). I think the piece would've looked better natural, but the "customer" was happy.

Jay

[markus shaffer]

While not a religeous person, I do like to think there are some deeds that get punished.. I'll have to agree with Jim on this one.. I don't know about utilizing the word "sinful" but I did once hear a quote by Kelly Mehler that might be applicable. He said something along these lines..

"There is a special place in hell for people who rip cut wide boards and glue them back together to keep them from warping."

Similarly, I think perhaps cherry is best left alone... Special terrible place for people who stain cherry? I don't know..



Alright, I'm just playing devil's advocate here.. While I don't color anything that leaves my shop, I think you should go with what feels best and or what your client is asking for.

-Markus


By the way, what's a Shania Twain?

[Martin Shupe]

If you choose your wood carefully, and the grain and color match throughout the project, I don't think that cherry needs any stain.

Having said that, cherry has a lot of variability from tree to tree. I have several "flavors" of cherry in my stash, and I have to be careful to pick boards from the same flavor for each project.

My wife likes cherry that has pitch pockets, small dark areas some are say are caused by an insect. So when I build something for her, I tend to pick those boards.

I also have some cherry that has very dark bands in the growth rings. I call this "mineral cherry". I am not sure, but I think the dark bands are caused by minerals in the local soil.

I have some cherry that I got from PA that is uniformly salmon colored. Very nice, but very pricey.

I also have a limited supply of curly cherry...I am saving those boards for a special project yet to be determined.

If you can find enough similar "flavored" cherry for your project, I don't think stain is necessary. If your project contains different flavors of cherry, a carefully selected stain may be what you need to tie it all together.

I have been trying various finishes for cherry. Currently my favorite is two coats of Tried and True Original (not the varnish mix) followed by several coats of Waterlox Medium Sheen...I just keep putting on coats until I like the sheen...not too shiny, just a little.

The only bad thing about cherry is that I can never get enough wide boards.

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Putting stain on cherry would be like putting a burlap sack on Shania Twain

Hey Ken, She would look good even in a burlap sack.