On Oct 22, 3:19 pm, (Doug Miller) wrote:

Yep, I agree -- 50 to 75 *weeks* is more than enough to see a considerable,
and very pleasing, deep rich color. An (approx) 18-yo cherry bookcase in my
living room hasn't become discernibly darker in the last eight to ten years.

The cherry we get down here from our suppliers is just crap for
finishing. It is structurally sound, easy to work and expensive.
Leaving it out in the sun makes the stuff I have bought streak
different colors. Over a period of time, the project looks
unsatisfactory to me as the gray areas never really turn.

My brother in law is from the midwest (Ohio) and they have all manner
of really nice woods at their fingertips. When we looked at woods for
a project in his house, the cherry we looked at looked fine to me.
Used to looking at the stuff from his hometown, he thought I was
joking. He thought I was looking at utility shelf material to use on
his project, not appearance grade wood.

And for me, it may be different different circumstances that drive
me. When someone hires me to finish a piece for them, they don't want
to think that it could look like the picture of something they saw
in a magazine. They don't want to bet on the fact that in a year it
might look like the finish they paid for, or worse, even change to
color they don't like. Then what?

They go to Ethan Allen or to the furniture galleries and say "this is
what I want. Can you do this?" That's pretty much the long and the
short of the discussion. It goes from there if the answer is "yes".

It is totally different than having a quality, dependable product (not
what we have here!) that gives one reasonable expectations of
performance when using it. And it is different too, than having a
nice project sit in your house for a couple of years to see what you
have after it gently ages, and just as interesting to see when it will
stop.

I would love to have some cherry like that.

Note too, the difference of opinion here. Leon and others say it is
UV exposure that changes the color. That has certainly been my
experience.

But a deceased contractor friend of mine's widow called me last year
and wanted me to buy cherry that has been sitting in his old shop for
about 18 - 20 years. Guess what color it is? Gray and pink. Except
for the sap pockets, it looks no more like cherry than a lightly
stained pine board (with no knots). It has sat exposed, unfinished,
open to the air and has had no appreciable color change.

Yet Mike can put up finished (I would assume with some kind of sealer)
in his kitchen and in just six months be really satisfied with the
coloration.

I'm tellin' ya, its different wood. All cherry no doubt, but the good
stuff stays up north.

That too, is why most of the custom furniture makers down here DON"T
use it. Last year at the Texas Furniture Maker's Guild show, I only
saw cherry as accents.

And once again, as always, just my 0.02.

Robert