On Oct 20, 6:56 pm, "CraigT" wrote:
I made some shelves to go over a window in my bedroom out of cherry. I
applied some shellac to a piece of scrap and it's obvious that I'm going to
need to stain it to get that typical dark cherry that I'm looking for. Is
there something at the home centers that'll do this or am I going to have to
order something online to get that dark cherry I'm looking for out of this
cherry?

Thanks,
~Craig


Hmmm -- should have done a google search before posting this. I see a
few subtle flames from the blasphemy furnace have started. I'll not
flame; though I too hold that staining cherry if *generally* a really
bad idea. In general, we don't have shop classes any more so people
are uneducated about wood and unable to appreciate anything beyond
Ikea. That coupled with the lack of patience that pervades our
society causes the search for a quick fix.

In contrast to most, I will point out that not all cherry is the same
color, nor will it be the same color when aged. For example, I have
a few cherry pieces which were made over a two year window. One is
the deepest darkest red I've ever seen in un-stained/painted cherry --
about the same color as the purple paint used on mass produced stuff.
Another is very light (no it's not sapwood) running almost to pink and
orange. These are all natural variations. Fresh off the saw the
former was darker/redder than the latter after aging. I'm glad they
aren't the same -- if I wanted uniform color I'd have plastic
furniture. Cherry particularly is sensitive to geography/soil.
Cherry from SE MN will often go almost grey rather than red; from
southern IN it'll vary but can often be blood red; PA cherry is the
gold standard.

So a big question: let's say you find the stain you want. Will it be
what you want *after* the wood under the stain darkens?

hex
-30-