Hints on matching ply with cherry?

[jason mowery]

Hi Everyone! I'm getting ready to build some bookcases, and have a fair amount of rough cut cherry on hand, but am planning on making the cases out of birch cabinet grade ply (cherry ply is waaay too spendy for me). Anyway, I'll be finishing the bookcases in one of three Minwax colors, cherry, heritage cherry, or natural, with Tung oil and paste wax after that. -Haven't decided on the stain color yet, but it'll be one of those three, and regardless, I have to somehow get the ply to resemble cherry. I tried before on a 12 drawer chest I made, and wasn't pleased with the results at all. Does anyone have any good tips for doing this? I imagine lots of you have done similar projects...
THanks!

[Jim Becker]

It's not going to ever look like cherry...birch has an entirely different looking grain pattern. You'd be better off with poplar ply and then use dyes to get it to the color you want. Do not use any of the Minwax stains you mention on either the cherry or the poplar ply...it will look terrible. They are largely pigment based products and don't work well on these woods. They are best on open pore species like oak and ash.

The rub with substituting non-cherry plywood is that the plywood is going to stay the color you make it, more or less, and the cherry on your face frames is going to change color over time...getting much darker. Getting the "target" right is a challenge.

[Sam Yerardi]

It is worth noting, however, that there is a lot of old antique furniture that did use birch and other woods that were stained/colored to look like cherry. I was reading about it last night. The difference though, it was solid wood and not plywood. As Jim indicated, the grain is different. Adn in trying to match plywood against solid when the grain patterns and directions are potentially (and significantly) different, you have your hands full. If you have to use the birch ply I would try sealing a scrap piece first and try different approaches until you find something that comes close but it will difficult. You may end up being able to only match color and nothing else.

[jason mowery]

Crap. Well, thanks for the input, it was helpful. So if you HAD to use non-cherry ply, it would be poplar, and don't use Minwax, got it. So what would you guys do, knowing what you know? I have a bunch of walnut as well, and I'm not absolutely committed to doing cherry. Would I be any better off getting a reasonable match with that?

[Sam Yerardi]

I'll ask a question that maybe you've already considered. Any chance of doing the project in two woods? If so, you could take the birch to a complimentary color that would work with cherry. Even a clear finish approach on the birch might look good.

[john bateman]

Maybe just get some birch lumber to go with the plywood and color it any way you like. Use the cherry on another project.

[Chris Padilla]

http://www.homesteadfinishing.com/ See if Jeff Jewitt has any ideas for you. Don't give up but transforming one species of wood to look like another can be tricky. Look up books by both Jeff and Bob Flaxner. They are both the gurus of wood finishing!

[Jim Becker]

Another idea would be to finish the interiors (using the birch or poplar plywood) either natural or with a high-quality 100% acrylic coating in a color somewhat like what the cherry will end up being. Once the books, etc., are in there...you'll really not notice it that much. I'm very seriously considering doing this method for a whole long row of bookshelves I need to replace in our Great Room "real soon now". Don't use "latex paint" however...such coatings exhibit "blocking" which is interminable "stickyness".

[jason mowery]

Ok, thanks. I'll look into all those resources and consider everyone's ideas. Thanks so much!

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

Jason, Don’t give up on matching birch ply with cherry. I made a computer workstation and used a water based anniline dye (red cherry). I then finished with water based gloss poly. The dye picks up the wild grain in the ply and gives it an iridescent quality. It looks like it's quilted. I finished the front edge of the table with piece of 7/4 cherry. People are astonished when they are told it's birch plywood. They think it's an inch and a half slab of cherry. …A testament to the good stain match.

[Anthony Anderson]

Jason, in the overall scheme of things, the cherry ply may be the way to go. If you consider the work and time that you will have involved in the finished product, you probably would be happier with the end result. Also, trying to match cherry, and have it turn out right, will take some trial and error, and if you get the correct coloring initially, in the long run, the cherry will still be a different color due to age. As Jim said, finding the right middle ground, taking into account the initial color of cherry and the predicted color of the cherry, will be very difficult and time consuming to do. If you cannot use the cherry, due to price, possibly wait until finances permit the use of the cherry ply. I find that when I try to cut a corner in some area, it usually comes back to make me regret that I even tried it. Just a thought.