I’m finishing a chest/entertainment piece from cherry with western big leaf maple door panels and drawer fronts (re-sawn veneer). The door panels are book-matched inserts into cherry frames. The panels measure 12 x 27 each and the figure runs vertically. The drawer fronts are also book-matched and cut from the same board as the door panels. The 3-drawers range from 6.5″ to 8.5 inches in height. The grain’figure runs horizontally. The finish is a wipe-on BLO/raw tung/turp and varnish. The door panels were pre-finished 3-4 months before the drawers fronts. I might also add that I have the same problem with the matching night stands. The finish formula was followed for finishing the doors and drawers and the ingredients are from the same bottles/cans.
The problem is that the door panels have visually taken on the darker hue/tint of the cherry frames while the drawers are much lighter in appearance. I can’t really tell if it is a true difference or an affect of light on the difference grain direction and the surrounding cherry. The “cherry” hue of the door panels is quite attractive but I’m unsure if I should leave the apparent mismatch of the drawers or try and tint the final top coat to get a closer match. Any advise would be appreciated.
Doug
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You do understand that wood changes color over time as do certain finishes? Cherry rapidly darkens when exposed to sunlight. Maple takes on an amber cast under the same circumstances. Your oil based finish containing linseed oil and varnish also yellow over time. This may be what you are seeing.
That said, the newly finished pieces will also darken over time and should catch up to and match the prior pieces shortly. You can hasten the cherry darkening by putting it out in the sun for a few hours. Be sure to frequently rotate it so that the sun gets to it evenly. A couple of hours a day for 2-3 days should get the new cherry looking like the older. You can try the same with the maple but the change is no where near as rapid.
Howard,
I have dliberately slowed the finishing of the project to permit the cherry to darken by exposing the pieces to indirect shop light - I have a lot of windows. The door panels were set out to dry in direct sun but I have not previously experienced maple changing in color to the degree that these have. The door panels literally look like a highly figured cherry wood. I'll expose the the drawers to see if that enchances the coloring nut I'm not convinced this is the cause unless their is an UV aspect to darkening the finshing material itself. HMMMM...
Edited 11/28/2005 7:50 pm by DougF
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