On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 21:19:51 -0400, "Rumpty"
wrote:

Anyone care to share your finishing suggestions for Cherry? Natural/light
and dark/stained finishing techniques?


For lighter finishes, I prefer spraying tinted lacquer or shellac
toner coats to avoid blotching. To bring individual boards closer
together, I'll use light colored Solar Lux dyes as the first step. A
dewaxed shellac barrier coat goes on after the dye, over the whole
piece.

For darker finishes, I'll Solar Lux the whole thing with a yellow or
pink dye, depending on the original wood color, barrier coat it, and
add a Behlen's (or Mohawk) wiping pigment stain, which is again
followed by a barrier. These steps should leave the wood lighter than
desired. The final color is arrived at with toners.

Practice with samples to get the dye / pigment combos that work for
you. It's weird dyeing a piece pink or yellow, but it works out well
in the end.

Stay away from medium and dark colored dyes at the beginning to avoid
blotching.

Barry