Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Staining Cherry Sapwood
Frank Mutchler in Colorado Springs
>Anyone care to comment on staining Cherry sapwood? I'm guessing aniline dye & alcohol?? If it appears that it's not that much trouble, I'd like to try; otherwise I'll just cut the sapwood out. TIA
Sapwood won't darken with sunlight
Steve Elliott
>While I haven't stained cherry sapwood, I have used cherry heartwood on a number of projects and have had the problem that the heartwood darkens with exposure to sunlight, while the sapwood doesn't. I thought I had cut out all the sapwood, only to find (months later) that there were light-colored areas of borderline sapwood that no longer matched the rest of the project.
If you stain the sapwood to match the non-darkened heartwood, the colors will no longer match after exposure to sunlight.
I'd cut out all the sapwood if I wanted the piece to end up with even color.
Alternatives
jim_reed@marietta
>Cut it out, hide it in back, or proudly display it as *charm*. Staining sapwood in walnut or cherry never looks right to me.
Re: Staining Cherry Sapwood
Jim in Burlington Ontario
>I can't remeber the issue but FWW had a good article. My theory is slightly different while I don't intentionally buy cherry with sapwood sometimes it appears after you have planed it. So I don't try to match the color but just use toner after it has been sealed to blend it in a little.