Dark finish on cherry

I'm about to start work on a simple hall table- 18x40 top, apron with one drawer, tapered legs. It will be made of cherry, because that's all I have on hand right now. In order for it to look right in the planned location, we think it should be darker than natural, something close to a dark walnut shade. I am a total novice at this, and while I will have scrap for testing various finishes, I could use some advice to get started in the right direction.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Tony
 
well cherry will darken

and in time alot, almost to the point of walnut. there are more expeirneced folk out there than me, but the general jist is if you want to darken it now to what you are tryin to match it will pass it in time.. and then be to far the other way possibly.. i would suggest using trans tints to get you in the right direction but hold of on matching it right now.. take a look at the blocthy cheery post and you can see what 5 days of sun tan did to some cherry and one coat of garnet shellac and 6 coats of laquer.. the door on the right had only 3 days of major sun the rst was over cast. cherry gets dark and will match closly to walnut in years to come with natural finishes.
 
The only words of advice I can give you is you can use a stain to get it to look like walnut but in time it will gain a patina of its own and will eventually look Black. Time and sunlight is what will get the nice patina on cherry, if that is the dark color you are looking for.

Jay
 
if you want the walnut look then buy some walnut:eek:............it`d be a shame to stain or dye perfectly good cherry.
 
if you want the walnut look then buy some walnut

Amen to that!

I personally would not dye the cherry, and don't use orange shellac - it ends up looking just that - ORANGE - I know! :( Looks great on walnut though :thumb:

I have a chest of draws I made years ago and simply finished it with wipe-on-poly. Over time it's a really nice dark shade. My table that I used shellac on is now lighter that the chest - and still looks orange. :doh:
 
... I could use some advice to get started in the right direction.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Tony
OK, you asked for it. Let cherry be cherry! Natural and unadulterated. Like Tod said, if you want the table to look like walnut -- buy walnut -- don't mess with the natural beauty of cherry. :thumb:
 
Now here a doozy for you. About 10 years ago, when I know zero about ww-ing, my first project was a nightstand. I'd built it using maple, and my wife decide she's like it to be a nice dark color, like walnut. Doh! :doh:

I ended up plastering it with umpteen layers of gel stain. It worked out okay-ish but as said here, if you want it to look like walnut, use walnut. ;)
 
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