Cherry Finishing / Staining

[Brett CoughlanAus]

Hi,

I've been reading some of the advice on Cherry on here and have concluded that it is not exactly the easiest wood to finish . I managed to source some cherry (expensive here!) for a cabinet and have the doors nearly done. I'm wanting to stain the panels a slightly different color than the rest of the cherry and have some water based dye to do this but am not sure what will give the best results.

Should I use a BLO / Tung oil type mixture first, then a coat of shellac then the dye (I this what's a called a glaze coat?) and then shellac over the top or other final finish?

Any help appreciated

[Jim Becker]

The dye goes on the bare wood. Oil next after knocking down the whiskers from grain raise and then seal with de-waxed shellac. You don't need to use the oil, but I always do on cherry. And use BLO. Tung oil (the real stuff) will give you nothing more except a longer cure time at a greater expense. You will not be able to see any difference.

And cherry is not hard to finish...

[Sam Yerardi]

Cherry is subject to blotching but it can be dealt with. It's caused by variations in grain that absorb stain (liquids) differently. Dyes are better to use when addressing this but if you want to use stain, I've jotted down some things for you. You may have pieces of cherry that blotching won't be a problem, and any type of stain looks good. Other pieces, it's a different story. I use BLO with shellac, or sometimes just shellac alone. One thing that you can do prior to doing anything is to test the surface to see what kind of blotching (if any) you can expect. You can use a rag soaked with mineral spirits and apply it to the surface. Make sure you dispose of the mineral spirit-soaked rag appropriately because of the danger of fire (spontaneous combustion). It will usually (not always) give you an indication, and the mineral spirits will evaporate without causing any subsequent problems. Note that this does not always work but i will usually do it to get a general idea. Make sure you give the wood at least a day for the mineral spirits to evaporate so that there's no problme with whatever you do next. If you use water-based dye, let it dry thoroughly before you sand off the raised grain. You asked about glaze. Glaze is stain. The difference is STAIN you apply to bare wood. GLAZE is what it's called when you're applying it to a layer of FINISH. Back to the cherry and blotching - if you discover that blotching is a problem, you can seal with dewaxed shellac (white if you don't want any sort of an amber color) and use GEL stain instead of liquid stain. The GEL is slow to reluctant to absorb into the grain, which helps prevent the blotching.

[Jim Becker]

...But "gel stain" is kinda like paint. It sits on the surface and obscures the beautiful wood below it. Sometimes I wonder why they even call it "stain" since it's designed to not be absorbed into the wood.

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

Brett, My .02 worth: I work almost exclusively with cherry and personally think it's a shame to stain it. Try hitting it with some BLO then finish with several top coats of your choice. Clear shellac will work fine. Cherry has a high content of tanic acid, which lends itself to reaching a deep reddish color very quickly over time. Staining can be tricky business. You can hasten the process by exposing the unfinished piece to direct sunlight for a day or 2 before finishing. And the finshed piece will darken quicker if kept in a sunny area. Good luck!

[Dennis Peacock]

Brett, My .02 worth: I work almost exclusively with cherry and personally think it's a shame to stain it. Try hitting it with some BLO then finish with several top coats of your choice. Clear shellac will work fine. Cherry has a high content of tanic acid, which lends itself to reaching a deep reddish color very quickly over time. Staining can be tricky business. You can hasten the process by exposing the unfinished piece to direct sunlight for a day or 2 before finishing. And the finshed piece will darken quicker if kept in a sunny area. Good luck!

Exactly.!!!! I don't stain any cherry I use. It gets that deep rich cherry color all on its own over time. So very pretty.

[Sam Yerardi]

Jim,

Good point. I hate to obscure the grain as well.

As far as using stain on cherry, I'm not a purist but if I'm building a piece that is a stand-alone and doesn't need to match anything, I'll go natural which is my al-time preference. As others have indicated, cherry rapidly darkens, especially so with UV exposure. You can even use lye and other chemicals (that I don't recommend) to quickly darken cherry. If I am building a piece that needs to match something else, stain is just another tool to use. Even the cabinetmakers over the past several hundred years sometimes would stain cherry to mimick mahogany. And sometimes it is extremely difficult to tell the difference. I agree it is a shame to cover up the beauty of cherry. I probably do more work with cherry than anything esle and BLO and/or shellac is usually what I reach for first.

[Jim Becker]

BTW, I didn't express my normal "no stain/dye on cherry" opinion this time around because the OP indicated that his intention was to treat the door panels differently as a design element.

[Brett CoughlanAus]

Thanks for all the comments guys, you're right I was trying to think of a way to make the door panels lighter than the rest of the cabinet but will give the comments some thought.

Cheers.

[Jim Becker]

Brett, the best way to make the door panels lighter for contrast is to use a different species...