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On May 1, 7:43 pm, "John F. King" wrote:

As far as I know, Park corp (maker of Carver-Tripp) is out of business.
I haven't been able to find any Carver-Tripp products at any of the
usual stores. Searches on the internet come up empty also. My can has a
1998 date on it.

John

This might not get you much fartther.

http://www.parkscorp.com/

I didn't see much pertinent there, but I did find the phone number (!)
for the Parks corp so you could call them directly. I tried it, the
number works, so you could get it directly from them. They might be
able to tell you if there is an accceptable substitute. Call them at
1-800-225-8543.

I didn't know CT products were even hard to find. They were really
hard charging for years in the low VOC market.

Let us all know what you find out.

Also, I heard this, but have not confirmed this... a fellow remodeler
told me a couple of weeks ago that his client went to Lowe's and they
MATCHED stain. He claims the client was no idiot and wasn't screwing
with him. I haven't ever heard of such a thing, but that sure doesn't
mean it isn't happening.

Otherwise you are down to mixing all the nearest colors on your pieces
of scrap to see how close you can get the final product. It isn't as
hard as you might think to do that. But the deal killer is how the
stain looks with the seal coat on it. Almost all oil finshes leave
some amber behind after drying, and then continue to amber as time
goes by.

And just a thought here, I wouldn't beat myself to death with
matching. You won't get it perfect. Your wood will take the stain
different than the original, the envorinmental conditions you apply
the colorant in will not be exactly the same, and worse, sometimes
there are small variances in the stain colors as batched at the plant.

Nothing is worse than spending time on something like that, hours of
mixing an applying, letting samples dry on your exact match of wood,
then clear coating to get something that is ONLY really close. Then
of course, a more discerning eye sees the difference when they drive
up the drive way. No need to even come in the house.

If you couldn't get it close enough to make it a perfect match in yoru
eyes, I would change colors or hues and make the island an "accent"
piece to the kitchen. That method has saved me more than once and
always worked out well.

Robert


I emailed the NEWPARK corp and got a reply that basically said: "Sorry we
don't make stain anymore. Good luck."

I mixed two parts Minwax english chestnut with 3 parts of colonial maple. It
is darker on white oak and lighter on common trim stock than the CT special
walnut. I'll have to try a few pieces and apply some poly before I decide if
this is good enough of a match.

I haven't had the chance to try Lowes for matching.

John