On Fri, 12 Nov 2010 05:31:19 -0600, Swingman wrote:

On 11/12/2010 5:00 AM, jtpr wrote:
I felled a black cherry tree in my yard and now I'm milling the wood
from it. I am finding all of this wood to be about the color of
Maple, maybe a wee bit darker. How come whenever you see any Cherry
furniture or cabinets it is a dark reddish brown in color? Is it
always stained?

A lot of the "cherry" furniture you see is indeed stained to get a jump
on the natural darkening process due to exposure to sunlight, or is not
cherry and has been stained to look like cherry after it has been
exposed to sunlight.

Cherry will naturally darken with exposure to sunlight. So much so that
it will become as dark as walnut over time.
Or you can "gas" or "fume" the cherry to speed up the darkening - I
believe ammonia does the trick pretty well.