Opinions on finishing cherry

R

rchampagne

Well-known member
I'm working on a Chippendale style dressing table out and I'm making it of cherry.  I am planning on dyeing the piece, a coat of BLO, then a few coats of shellac.  I have used Lockwood's dyes in the past and have been happy with them. 

1.  Does anyone have a particular favorite dye for cherry (ie color)?
2.  Would you use ambler or clear shellac? 

I've made a number of pieces with cherry but haven't much experience dying it.  Any advise would be helpful. 
Thanks,
Rob
 
Rob,

If you're feeling a bit experimental, why not try the photo-oxidation process? Give it a UV suntan that David Keller describes in his article in the December 2008 APF. I've never done it but I have liked the way my purchased cherry sideboard mellowed after I placed it in a sunlit room. And rather quickly too, I might add.

Or, try potassium dichromate if you can get it. It has a nice darkening effect on cherry.

I have no experience with Lockwood dyes so I can't comment. I've used Jeff Jewitt's Transfast dyes. So far so good with them.

And, I like the deeper look amber shellac gives.

As in all things related to finishing, do a test piece or three first.

Rick Yochim 


 
 
Rob, Ricks advise here is sound, thank you Rick for sharing your exerience.

                                          joseph Hemingway
 
I've been disappointed when dyeing cherry.  Not immediately, but a few years later when photo oxidation is added to the colour placed there with the dye.  I've found the piece becomes too dark after only a few years.

My practise now is to use BLO, followed by a couple of coats of amber shellac and then a final coat of 10 degree nitrocellulose lacquer for protection and to kill the shine of the shellac.
 
I prefer sun light. A bookcase I made has after 5 years developed a dark rich color, and it's in an area in the room where it doesn't get lots of light.
 
Thanks all for the replies.  I may skip the dye and go with BLO and shellac.  I made a scaled down version of the John Townsend QA dresser from Jeffrey Greene's book a few years ago.  I made it prior to our son's birth so that we would have a place for his clothes, diapers, etc, and so that we could change him on top.  I got some funny looks for making a "changing table" in this manner.  Foreseeing spillage and wear, I finished it with a coat of BLO and then a few coats of semi gloss polyurethane.  The wood seems to have gotten darker, and I'm pretty happy with the look on that piece, but would very much like to avoid polyurethane on the piece I am presently building.  Anyway, I think the main thing is that I would like the piece to have a uniform color (some of the parts are from different boards, different trees, etc.) Does cherry tend to mellow to an acceptably uniform color when exposed to the sun, or would a coat of dye be required? 
Thanks again, Rob
 
There may be a difference in colour as the piece ages, but this will also happen if you stain it.  Just avoid any sapwood and try to colour match your drawer fronts by using boards from the same tree, same for the top and sides.

Herman
 
I've been finishing cherry for over 20 years.  If you use the right aniline dyes there is no problem staining/dyeing sap wood to match the heart wood exactly.  I never throw out the sap wood.

Dennis Bork
Antiquity Period Designs, Ltd.
 
Has anyone dyed cherry to look like mahogany?  I think this was a pretty common practice in the 18th century. 
 
I have used Lockwood dyes on cherry, and lots of other woods, to great success. I have only used the water soluble ones. They have several antique mahogany dyes that will give you the color you are looking for. A solution of hot lye also works well, but is very messy and it is hard to control the ending color.

One thing that is never discussed in these coloring posts is the color of the wood the poster is using, and the color he wants to end up with.

Cherry boards can range in color from gray to brown to pink to deep red. The color varies depending on the part of the country they come from and the soil they were grown in. They will all turn darker with time and light exposure, but a gray or brown board will not turn a rich red color, just darker. At least in my experience. This applies to Walnut also.

And, when we are trying to match the color of a piece we like, just what color is it? Mahogany ranges in color from deep red to a light tawny color after a hundred or more years.
It is impossible I think to answer these questions without personally seeing the raw wood and the target color.

The answer for me is to have many different dyes on hand so you can try the different shades on the actual wood you are using. This way I can end up with the color I want from the boards I have used. I have about 25 mixed and ready to experiment with. I seem to add a few every year. The Lockwood dyes are inexpensive and last for years. I keep mine in plastic liter bottles, in case I would drop one.
Good luck and have fun with your coloring.
 
"Does cherry tend to mellow to an acceptably uniform color when exposed to the sun, or would a coat of dye be required?"
Click to expand...

Rob - When I cut the samples I used for the article in APF, I intentionally incorporated sapwood into them to assess what the sun's UV rays would do to the sapwood/heartwood contrast.  The only exception was mahogany - I don't have any mahogany with sapwood (I suppose that's a good thing!).

The sapwood was acceptably blended on only one sample - poplar.  The contrast with this sample was a bit of a shock - after exposure the sapwood was indistiguishable from the heartwood.

On cherry, both the sapwood and heartwood darkened considerably, but there was still a very clear dilineation.  As Dennis notes, I suspect the only way to incorporate cherry sapwood in a piece and conceal it would be with dyes.
 
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