Color match... making cherry the same color as fumed white oak.

[C & S]

I know that it's heresy, but I would like to make some cherry a more of a medium chocolate brown.

I have put my banister back together with new fumed white oak spindles. I saved the newels because, although painted, they were in interesting and in relatively good shape.

I stripped them and I'm fairly sure that they are cherry.

Unfortunately, there are already too many different colors of wood going on so I just want it to blend. ( know it's never going to look like oak, but if I could just get close with color I would be happy).

Do you think that I will have any luck toning with a tinted wipe-on poly? If so should I go this a brown, or should I go "past" the intended color to color to counter the reddish tone of the cherry?

My gut says toning is a better option than stain because there is no scrap to experiment on and it will let me sneak up on a color.

I do not have spray equipment, so that's not an option.

Thoughts?

pic posted to abpw

[Ba r r y]

I'd go the toning route, but not with poly. I'd use shellac, as it's easy to undo mistakes. Poly's a lot harder to undo. If you want poly, apply it after the color coats are complete.

Even easier would be tinted spray lacquer (from cans), with barrier coats of shellac between each toning. The barrier coats would allow you to back up one step, without going all the way back to the start.

Tinted shellac would be much harder to back up, but all of it could be easily removed without harm to the surface.

Plain old Seal Coat can be tinted or used as a barrier. Zinnser Clear spray shellac also makes a great barrier, as it's dewaxed.

Barry

[C & S]

Thanks Barry,

That's a good point. I hadn't really considered driving in reverse. Shellac should work nicely in that regard.

[Unisaw A100]

Substitute alder for cherry.

UA100

[Nova]

Behlen make an aerosol toner which comes in various colors. See:

-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

[Larry Jaques]

On Sat, 2 Oct 2004 19:22:53 -0400, "C & S" calmly ranted:

Stand your wife in the area with sunglasses and a UV lamp. She can tell when she gets the color she wants and stop right there. How's that?

Cherry in some Mission pieces was processed like QS white oak: fumed with ammonia.

[Mark & Juanita]

I think what he is trying to do is avoid having to reconstruct existing stair components. They are already cherry, he's trying to get the finish to match the rest of the staircase.

[C & S]

Yes. It's 150 year old house. The stair trads were shot and some spindles were damaged. I salvaged the banister and newels because they were cool, old, unique, *really* hard to reproduce.

[C & S]

I was not aware of those. Thanks for the link.

[Unisaw A100]

Ahhhh yes I see it now after swinging back up and re-reading the text. But, having spent a couple/few years in the stair bidness and a couple/few decades in the architectural woodwork bidness I'm going to hazard a guess that there weren't/aren't no cherry there to 'gin with (1).

Just a guess based on historical this and thats.

Anyway, if anyone ever wants the look of cherry but wants a different outcome, alder is the choice material. It's really quite pretty with a light stain.

(1) But everything is contingent upon the back story/the rest of the story, like the history of the house and all.

UA100

[Pat Barber]

Toner can be purchased in spray cans... I can't remember the issue but Wood Magazine has an article on using toners and what have you... They listed several companies that will supply spray can versions of their products...

C & S wrote: