Factory Finish for Cherry

recommendations

bill tindal, E.TN

>Sherwin Williams cherry wiping stain. It will be in the back of the store along with other commercial finishing products. While there, get some conversion varnish for the finish, especially in a kitchen.

Personally, unstained cherry has a raw look to my eye so I always stain it. I think you will find your unstained preferences to be in the minority among people making classic furniture. If you can't see the grain after staining you aren't sanding and/or staining properly. Properly done, stain enhances the grain.

Re: recommendations

Keith I

>Bill, thanks for your recommendation. I will check it out. I personally like a stained wood with a varnish or lacquer topcoat, however, the customer likes a very dark finish that looks like a lacquer/tint mix that obscures the grain almost totally. If I were less than honest I could put that finish on poplar and most people wouldn't know the difference. Again, many thanks.

Keith I

New recommendations

bill tindal, E.TN

>In that case, if you can spray the finish, use cherry toner, again available from Sherwin Williams. In essence it is dye in lacquer. If sprayed uniformly it will darken uniformly. the advantage is that it darkens uniformly, which in my mind is its disadvantage for bringing out the grain. Most factory finishes use toner to make the wood appear uniform (boring, editorial) . Probably stain, seal the stain, and then spray toner to get desired depth of color. See comment on darkening a finish in the question posted after yours. And there is cherry colored glaze that will also darken and highlight. A high end factory finish will have all three colorants applied.

Need I say practice on a scrap first...................

Re: New recommendations

Bill White

>Ditto on the conversion varnish and toner. Get several color samples together making sure the "recipe" for each is noted for your records. Make the customer sign off on the color choice so that there will not be a future issues.

Bill

Re: New recommendations

Keith I

>Thanks Bill and Bill. That gives me a good direction to go in. Thats why I and so many other people love this site. Cheers,

Keith I