Sap Wood/Heart Wood Contrast

[Frank Speyerer]

I recently built my first piece of furniture, a cherry blanket chest. Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention to matching the wood. So now I have a bright colored piece of sap wood as a stile in between two heart wood raised panels. It sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb. What can I do to even the colors out other than painting?

[AceHoleInOne]

Do you have the capabilities to spray? This would allow you to control your background or base color with a dye, make everything even, prior to applying a stain.

-Ace-

[Frank Speyerer]

...control your background or base color with a dye, make everything even,,,

-Ace-

Yes, I planned on spraying a water based lacquer for the protective finish. I am not familiar with dyes. What shade/color should I use to maintain the beauty of the cherry?

[AceHoleInOne]

Depends how you like your cherry. However, I would say to dye the cherry first with a thin 50/50 water and General Finishes Cinnamon water-based dye. If you like dark cherry, a black cherry stain or if like the natural look use a honey tone (pine) stain.

The trick is to dye everything light. Then bring in your sapwood to match or close as possible to the heart wood, maybe even a tish darker cause the heart will darken with age. Then give everything a final coat to even the base color. Then seal your dye down with a coat of your water based topcoat and glaze over that with your water-based stain.

Practice this on scraps so your confident with your technique when its time to take it to the project. Go buy a few samples of stain (light/dark) and test.

-Ace-

[bois]

I'd also suggest using the Charles Neil pre-color conditioner. One of the claims of the product is that it evens out heartwood and sapwood if you are using a dye. I actually just finished filming a video blog post that shows how this is done, unfortunately it won't be out until later this week. But I had some hard maple table tops that were about 50/50 heartwood and sapwood, and the Charles Neil product + TransTint dye evened out the color to the point where you couldn't distinguish between the areas of heartwood and sapwood. In lieu of the blog post, here is a picture of the final product - again, keeping in mind this was completely streaked with heartwood and sapwood. (In case you're wondering, the top coat is GF Enduro-Var).

[AceHoleInOne]

If you have the ability to spray, in my experience, no pre-conditioner is really necessary. The spray applies the dye very dry to the surface,so no blotch. However, I will caution you, If your not proficient at spraying, a pre-conditioner may help if you get to heavy handed with the spray gun and you could apply the dye to wet, which than can cause the cherry to blotch. Since you have a water-based topcoat already???? why not thin that down 50/50 with water and shoot that over the wood as a pre-conditioner, its done all the time. Also I would recommend sticking with one finish manufacture product line all the way through for compatibility.

-Ace-

(In case you're wondering, the top coat is GF Enduro-Var).

Bois:

How did you like working with the Enduro Var? was it spray or brushed on?

[bois]

If you have the ability to spray, in my experience, no pre-conditioner is really necessary. The spray applies the dye very dry to the surface,so no blotch. However, I will caution you, If your not proficient at spraying, a pre-conditioner may help if you get to heavy handed with the spray gun and you could apply the dye to wet, which than can cause the cherry to blotch. Since you have a water-based topcoat already???? why not thin that down 50/50 with water and shoot that over the wood as a pre-conditioner, its done all the time. Also I would recommend sticking with one finish manufacture product line all the way through for compatibility.

-Ace-

Bois:

How did you like working with the Enduro Var? was it spray or brushed on?

I was very happy with the results of the Enduro-Var. I brushed it on for these tops (I actually had to make six of them) and it was a fairly easy process. It's a water-based product, so you get no fumes or vapors (it's surprisingly odor free). GF also sells a pre-cat pair of products (a sanding sealer and varnish) specifically designed for spraying (also water based). I haven't tried that yet, but that is apparently the better option for spraying. But the Enduro-Var was so easy to brush on, it was less hassle than setting up the HVLP.

[bois]

I finally got my video edited and posted on my blog. This is the one that goes over my faux mahogany finish - part of which is getting around quite a bit of contrast between the heart and sap wood on that slab.

http://theboisshop.blogspot.com/2010/09/faux-show.html