I want to build a home office setup.
I have tons of maple ply. But I want to build a cherry piece.
If I do the face frames and doors in cherry and stain the maple I fear that over time the cherry will age and darken and the maple stained case work won't. Am I correct?
Cherry ply is twice the price and I am unemployed now so I don't want to purchase any more wood. Any suggestions?
Butcher,
How about fast-aging the cherry so you don't have to guess what color to stain the maple. I know there's some tried and true methods out there...
jc
IMHO, trying to stain maple sucks.
Ever consider contrasting cherry and maple?
Lew
If you apply finish to only some areas and not the others, it won't look uniform, ever. Apply (cherry) stain to all parts.
The logical (and frugal) choice: Make it out of maple ply. Maple is a beautiful wood, although not currently in vogue.
Often a stark contrast looks much better than an attempted match that doesn't quite match. I would advise finding a different color wood that goes well with Cherry, such as Walnut, and or Maple and stain your Maple to match that wood rather than Cherry. If you choose Maple no matching is necessary. If you decide on Walnut you can be way off on the Walnut color and it will still look fine.
Or get a job and then do the job the way you want when you can afford it.
I like Lew's idea. Cherry and maple go great together. Take some time to design the piece. Colored pencils should help you get feel for the finished project. You might even consider thin walnut strips to accentuate the differences. Walnut would also make great plugs if you like that kind of look. Kick it around. It doesn't sound like you're going into production with this piece so why not push your creativity?
1 tsp of red devil lye to one quart of water does a beautiful job though I am a fan of cherry/maple combinations too.
Daryl
That was my first thought too. I've never had good luck trying to match different species with stain, but I've liked the pieces where I used contrasting woods and no stain at all. In my own opinion you'll never get them exactly the same but it's easy to get them to complement each other.
It's probably not relevant but I feel I should quote my wife's reaction when she laid eyes on our granddaughter's cherry cradle after its first coat of clear satin ArmrSeal: "THAT'S the color I was looking for when we stained that maple nightstand you made for me!"
How's your tongue? I imagine you were biting it pretty hard right about then.
I've heard that comment as well, I can empathize.
jc
Flat Black!
Joe
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.