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Thread: Aging Cherry

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    New Jersey
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    13,721

    Aging Cherry

    I see a lot of questions about pre-aging cherry. There are many techniques for this. Here's a new one I discovered:

    Sodium Nitrite.

    Sodium nitrite has been used to distinguish between red and white oak (it turns white oak black, temporarily, and does very little to red oak).
    Over time, though, the treated white oak turns a shade of 'antique' brown as this bowl has.

    I'm making a cherry bowl now. Here are two cut offs, one which has been treated with a 10% solution (by wt). I just dissolve the powder in water and mist it on. You can also soak, sponge, or brush it. The one caveat is that this cherry is from a log I just harvested. So the moisture content is still pretty high (17-18%). I am unsure if the effect will be as similar on aged or kiln dried cherry.

    I do not believe it is particularly irritating or dangerous to use, but as I'd recommend with any chemical, do your OWN research on safety first...

    I am curious to see if anyone else has tried this.

    Sodium nitrite is cheaply purchased on SouthAmericanRiver dot com. I little goes a long way.
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    Last edited by Prashun Patel; 03-10-2017 at 9:27 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Kansas City
    Posts
    2,652
    Prashun it looks like it kills some of the red in cherry. Is that what it looks like in person?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    New Jersey
    Posts
    13,721
    Yes, the picture is fairly accurate.

    I've had cherry that's aged to deep rust red, to a more ambery gold, and anywhere in between.

    I have made several bowls from this log over the past year. The first ones that I made have aged naturally (air) and are almost precisely this color. I also cannot attest to how long the color lasts.

    When applied to white oak, the effect is to go from jet black, to a metallic blue/green, and finally to a brown with some arguably green tones to it.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Location
    Southeastern MA
    Posts
    204
    I'm having mixed results right now with Lye. I'm trying to perfect my own technique to prevent water spots, but it seems to really bring out the Red quite a bit: especially when top-coated with Arm R Seal.

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