I’m building a dining table the top of which is figured (almost quilted) cherry veneers that I resawed from matching 8/4 boards. Unfortunately, as I cut through the boards, the last few veneers I sawed have a high % of sap wood. Initially, I wanted to leave the top “natural” but the color difference is too great.

I’ve tried some sample pieces with oil stain and found that the grain pattern looked “muddy”. I began experimenting with Aniline dye. Initially, the samples look great! I’m using an oil soluable type, disolved in Naptha. I flooded it on, and let it set for a couple of minutes and wiped off all excess, then allowed to dry overnight. I don’t think the drying time was necessary. I then applied my top coat; a 50-50 mix of fast dry varnish and Naptha, per technique outlined in a recent FWW article. The dye comes off. Each coat of varnish mix, removes some of the dye color.

What am I doing wrong?

Dale