Sapwood Help

[Brad]

I recently built a Stickley inspired chest of drawers. It is made from Chestnut Oak. I fumed the project with ammonia and it turned the wood a nice brown/gray appearance. I am pleased with the color. Unfortunately, one of the drawer fronts had lots of sapwood. At the time of construction, I didn't know that sapwood would react differently. (lesson learned)

I want to try to match the one mismatched drawer front. I wiped on a coat of Minwax Special Walnut. It looked pretty good on a scrap piece, so I went ahead with the drawer front. I am not happy with the color match. It has too much brown and not enough smoky gray/black.

What would be a logical approach to achieve a more uniform look? I was thinking about trying Minwax Jacobean.

If it matters, I plan to put an oil finish on the project after I get this drawer problem resolved.

Thanks, Brad

[George]

Do only the other drawer fronts?

[Brad]

Hi George,

I think I must have been confusing in my original post. Sorry about that. Only one of the seven drawer fronts had sapwood. Thus, I want to match the one bad drawer to the others. What are my options in staining? I have already used an oil based stain on the bad drawer front to try to fix it. Can I use a water based dye on top of an oil stain? Or do I need to stay with an oil stain. Logic tells me to avoid any water based dye at this point. Do you know a dye that would produce a dark gray color?

Thanks, Brad

[MikeG]

My opinion, the logical approach would be to avoid the picky aggravation of trying to match color and make a new drawer.

[George]

My suggestion was to make a virtue out of a necessity. Contrast the drawerfronts.

If you're not warm on that one, you might want to rebuild the drawer or drawerfront, because you're not about to get something chemically and even structurally different - sapwood - to look like heart.

Only an oil stain has a chance, because it's more a surface color. As an oil, of course, it will be hydrophobic, and reject your water dye. As the pigment will still be there, the results could be pretty dismal. If you want gray, traditional is liming wax over bleach, but - YUK!