Since I retired in 2000, I have been doing a lot of hobby woodworking, using mostly cherry and walnut. Some of the pieces that I made from cherry 9 years ago are beginning to develop a rich burgundy color. But a project I built last August has amazed me with both the depth and the uniformity of its change in color in just a few months. This project was built from wood on my lot that was harvested and milled only 3 years ago. I finished it with Minwax tung oil finish. The attached picture shows the remarkable change in this piece. Anyone experienced a similar case?
Dale
Replies
Cherry surely is photosensitive.
I installed cherry cabinets in a Los Altos, CA home about five years ago. Then I was asked this past summer by potential customers in a Mountain View, CA home if I would remove and install those cabinets in their own home. I did, knowing that the color of the old stuff would be much darker than the new, some of which I installed next to the old. Although we tried to hurry the darkening by staining the new, there's a distinct difference, and we knew that the new would darken more on their own. But the owners of the new kitchen are now patiently putting the new fronts outside in the California sun, hoping to suntan them to better match the already suntanned old fronts.
By the way, these new customers are as "green sensitive" as the cherry is photosensitive, believing that my well made cabinets and beautiful wood didn't deserve to end up in the dump, where most removed cabinets are burried.
Gary W
gwwoodworking.com
I've found that just a few sun days will make a great difference, and it usually doesn't take new projects very long to catch up to older work. But it seems like my lamp jumped ahead by a few years.I support your clients' attitude.Dale
"But it seems like my lamp jumped ahead by a few years." It's a remarkable example -- I had no idea cherry would darken that much in a relatively short period of time.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
In my experience, it doesn't normally. My lamp is as dark as some 40 year old cherry furniture I've seen. And I have only one other instance where cherry darkened not quite that much in about 4 years [Different tree that grew about 200 miles from the one in the lamp].Dale
My experience is that your example is not an extreme case, but closer to the norm.
Here's a couple of cherry pieces I made, a sideboard and a sewing table, neither of which was stained -- just natural darkening.
View Image
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Everything fits, until you put glue on it.
Mike, I think what he found remarkable was the speed with which the cherry darkened to such an extent. Just a bit over one year!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I think it would depend completely on where it was located. And there is a LOT of light in that room it appears. It is an oxidation process also.
We had solid cherry paneling in the house I grew up in--in the kitchen and 6 feet high.Gorgeous stuff, and dark dark dark--lots of tall windows. No sapwood!! ;o) I was young, and of course, didn't appreciate it at all.!
Gretchen
Edited 11/10/2009 4:24 am ET by Gretchen
My typical finishing schedule is, as I have posted here before, just clear Watco followed by poly or shellac. I find that cherry will darken in a month or two.
Here's a lousy pic of a cherry floor lamp, you can see it a bit on the left, and a cherry bookcase. Neither was stained. The lamp was simply oiled. It's about 8 or 9 years old. The bookcase is finished with oil and shellac. It (and the cherry trim in the room) was about 2 months old when the pic was taken. Not a heck of a lot of difference.
View ImageMike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.
Here's a cherry audio cabinet I made a couple of years ago. You can definitely see where my TV sits.
http://www.mvflaim.com
Edited 11/10/2009 9:57 pm ET by mvflaim
Maybe the intense light from the lamp had something to do with it?
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