Replies

1. 
   RMillard | Nov 27, 2004 07:38am | #1

   My favorite finish for cherry is to give it a coat of hide glue as you planed, then follow with some antique cherry water dye sold by Homestead. I spray this on, but I can't see why brushing wouldn't work just as well. After this is dried I put on a coat of linseed oil, with a touch of Japan drier. I apply the oil very hot, actually I heat until it smokes. While I've not had a problem doing this, this may not be the safest thing to do, from a fire safety stand point, so use plenty of caution and get all flammable materials out of the way. After the oil has dried a day or so, I slap on a heavy coat of Bartley Pennsylvania cherry gel stain, then rub most of it off. This will even out the color and give some nice depth to the finish. As with all finishing experimentation is the key, but for me this has resulted in a very nice even aged cherry color.

   Rob Millard

1. 
   Curtis | Nov 27, 2004 04:53pm | #2

   Hello

   I've used two different ways to stop blocking on cherry, the first is to use Shellac first to seal the grain,then stain the wood after.

   The other way is to use dyes not stain, the dye gives a very uniformed coloring and I belive it makes the grain more clear once the finish has dried.

   good luck,and let us know how it turns out.

    C.A.G.

2. 
   Woodturner | Nov 27, 2004 06:02pm | #3

   Iv'e never used the hide glue.  I diluted about 1/4 cup of hide glue granules in a quart of water, left it overnight and now I'm ready to apply it. According to an artilce I read by Chris Minick my next step is to warm up the granules in a microwave to dissolve the softened glue. Shake the glue to homogenize it and let it cool to room temperature. Then apply it. How do you apply it and are there any precautions etc. that I should be aware of when applying it? Thanks for your help

   Jim (Woodi)

1. 
   RMillard | Nov 29, 2004 12:30am | #5

   I've not used hide glue granules for a glue size ( although I use them for nearly all my gluing), instead I use the liquid hide glue sold by Franklin. I put about 1 table spoon to 8 oz of distilled water. Also, one thing I left out of my first post, is that surface preparation is also key to minimizing splotching. Of course the best surface is that left by a hand plane, but every surface can't be hand planed. Scraping is a good way to prepare a surface, but contrary to what you may read, is won't replace sand paper. I don't like to sand, but I found that unless I do a very careful job, the results suffer. When using dyes, which are by far the best way to go, I sand from 180 to 320 grit, going over every surface slowly and carefully to insure a truly smooth surface. Then I raise the grain and look carefully at the wet wood, which will give a preview of sorts of any areas that may splotch, or look like they could use more sanding. When dry, hit it again with the 320, and apply the glue size. Some areas like the upper and lower beveled sections of raised panels and endgrain may require a second application of the size, or some water carefully brushed on just prior to applying the dye, to even out the color. Rob Millard

2. 
   Paul_Snyder | Nov 28, 2004 07:58am | #4

   A lot of stains do blotch badly on cherry, but there are different stains that work well. For example Minwax "Cherry" does a good job, but I think the color is a little odd. Some of the thick gel stains also work; WoodKote and Bartley for example. Then there's the stains that use a polyurethane type binder instead of linseed oil. Some of these stains do a very nice job. In some cases dyes can do a nice job and in others they cause terrible blotching.

   If you use glue size to pre-seal the wood before staining don't use a water-soluable stain or dye. It will dissolve the washcoat. Instead, use an oil-base stain.

   I'm working on some information on cherry finishes that you can check out at this link - cherry finishing. Do you have a specific color in mind?

   Paul S
   Website

1. 
   Woodturner | Nov 29, 2004 12:51am | #6

   Thanks Paul for the advice. I like your web site, it's excellent. I hadn't realized there was so much to know and learn about finishing cherry wood. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what do with the color. I started building the unit a few years ago and I gave up on it for different reasons. Now I want to finish it but I'm afraid of the blotching that may ocurr. I'm not really interested in a blotchy look. I hadn't realized when I started down this road that coloring cherry wood would be so involved. The piece of furniture is now somewhat dark in color having been exposed to the light over the years even though it was in my basement. There are some pieces of wood that are sapwood and are light in color but it's very little. I want to have the same color throughout but I aslo want to be able to accentutate both the grain and figure as you mention in your web site. I think it is dark enough. I don't have access to any spray equipment.

    

1. 
   Paul_Snyder | Nov 30, 2004 01:43am | #7

   Wet an area with some mineral spirits, naphtha, alcohol, or lacquer thinner to get an idea of how the wood will look with a clear finish. If the color of the wood is good as is, you don't need a stain.I don't think I'd do anything with the sapwood in your case. There was a thread on blending sapwood recently and the best way I know how to do it requires spraying and adding color to all the wood. You can check that thread out at this link - http://forums.taunton.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=tp-knots&msg=19814.1One finish that looks nice, keeps blotching to a minimum, and is durable is a coat or two of shellac followed by a couple coats of varnish. For the shellac, you can use orange or garnet to enhance the natural color of the wood or go with blonde to avoid adding color. If you use polyurethane over the shellac, make sure the shellac is dewaxed to avoid adhesion problems. If you don't need a lot of durability, then a couple coats of shellac makes a nice finish by itself.There's info on using shellac at these links;http://antiquerestorers.com/Articles/jeff/padding_shellac.htmhttp://antiquerestorers.com/Articles/jeff/shellac.htmhttp://www.alan.net/prgfeat/dwshel.htmlhttp://www.popularwoodworking.com/features/fea.asp?id=1206Paul S
   Website

1. 
   Woodturner | Nov 30, 2004 05:15am | #8

   Thanks Paul for the advice and the links. I'll give it a try with the mineral spirits and see what it looks like and go from there. 

   Jim 

1. 
   forestgirl | Nov 30, 2004 08:06pm | #9

   If there's a goodly sized bookstore near you, take a look at Jeff Jewitt's Great Wood Finishes.  He has a section on finishing cherry, using 3 different techniques, accompanied by color plates.  It's very informative!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

2. 
   tms | Dec 01, 2004 01:16am | #10

   I've read several discussions about coloring cherry lately, and none of them have brought up the technique of chemically "accelerating" the aging color.Basically, (no pun intended) you wash the cherry with a dilute lye solution. Then rinse it off. The lye reacts with the wood, and depending on the concentration, will really give it a deep, dark red color.If I've sanded the surface, I usually raise the grain first with plain water to avoid "whiskers" in the colored surface. But cherry has such a nice surface that I usually don't need to.If you want to experiment with this, but don't have any lye, make a dilute mixture of granular drain cleaner (Draino™). It's just lye with aluminum bits in it to make it foam. If you want to pick out the aluminum go ahead, but it works either way.