In article , "Doug Goulden" wrote:
Just a beginner here and I'm trying to use some of my new (limited) skills
to make some Christmas presents. I have been reading about using lye to
darken cherry similar to what it would look like if it had aged naturally
and I had a question.
I have made a couple of boxes with hard curly maple tops trimmed with
cherry. If I am careful and try minimize the amount of solution I applied on
the maple will the solution affect the maple? The town I live in hasn't got
anywhere I can find lye,

Any hardware store, and most grocery stores, will have Red Devil lye in the
same place that they have Drano, Liquid Plumber, etc.

but I'm hoping to make it to civilization Friday
(Green Bay, WI). I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile even trying it or
if someone might know what would happen to the curly maple. Some of the
cherry I have is darker than the rest and I want to try to make it all match
and be darker. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The lye won't affect the maple. But whatever you use to apply the lye to the
cherry, be it a damp rag, a sponge, a brush, or whatever, will pick up a
considerable amount of color from the cherry, and you'll have to be *very*
careful to avoid wiping any of that onto the maple. IMO it's likely that there
will be some bleeding anyway: the lye will dampen the cherry, and some of that
moisture is bound to wick over into the maple, and bring the color along.

You might consider fuming the piece with ammonia instead; do a Google Groups
search on this newsgroup for ammonia + fuming + cherry and I think you'll find
some good information.

Either way, make a mockup from scrap and test on that first. Remember, if you
don't practice on scrap, you're practicing on your project.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

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