Suggestions for Cherry finish on Pine?

I have my best luck with pine if I seal it first with a thin de-waxed shellac. Zinsser's Seal Coat thinned 1:1 with denatured alcohol works well and dries very fast. As for the cherry, once you're sealed the choices are wide open. I have had good luck with gel stains if I am not sure of the color AND know I will go darker if required.

There should be a lot of good responses on this as finishing and what works seems to be as varied as the people doing it. I will suggest a tester board. This is a board of the SAME material sanded following the SAME regiment as your "real" piece. I use a strip about 3 or 4" wide by 3 or 4' long. I mark of sections about every 5" along the length with a permanent marker and apply different finishes on each panel. Be sure to write down (I write on the back of the board) what each sample is.

Examples might be:
- shellac, oil based dark cherry, lacquer
- BLO, pale cherry gel, poly
- shellac, trans tint medium cherry in DNA, shellac
etc.
 
From my experience with Pine (all of my early furniture pieces were Pine) it has a tendency to stain rather blotchy unless you use a sealer as Glenn described. I've had good luck with the prestain sealers made by the same company as the stain I planned to use (largely b/c I'm cheap and lazy:eek:). Just follow the instructions on the can and you should get a nice even look. Equally as important as sealing is sanding. While Pine is relatively soft, the darker grain structure is considerably harder. This can cause low spots on the lighter colored wood... or raised ridges on the darker if you prefer that. Don't use too much pressure and let the abrasive do the work. DAMHIKT:eek:
 
I'm with Billy on the sanding. I had to build a new part as I got so intent on the sanding and looking too close at one spot or another that I ended up with a surface that was rippled badly due to the different density in the wood. I'm such a knucklehead sometimes . . . I thought for a moment that something must be wrong with my sander. I then realized it was the sandee ;-)
 
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