Mixing Alder with cherry
#11
I have recently joined my churches property committee. As I was going around the various rooms I began to notice how beat up the cabinets look in the classrooms and youth rooms.

I have a ton of pre run Cherry stile and rail material from my dad's business that I had to sell. I also have a lot of 1/4" A2 flat sawn Alder Plywood. The wheels started spinning that perhaps I could use those materials for doors and build new boxes out of uv prefinish birch and have Cherry face frames.

I would stain everything a rich Cherry color. I have never actually worked with Alder, would it be close enough to the untrained eye to look like Cherry? Does it stain well or can it be blotchy like Cherry.

I have used a lot of Cherry in my past projects but never Alder. Thoughts?
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#12
Alder is the poor man's cherry. However for me I can get cherry cheaper than alder cause the alder available is ugly stuff with lots of knots.

I'd like to know how you plan to stain the cherry. It's almost unstainable.
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#13
I doubt that it would be a good match. Why not make them contrasting?
Bob
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#14
Why would you think cherry is unstainable? I have stained it many times without blotching and it turned out very well. Its the only way I know of to even out the sap with the heartwood.
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#15
You should learn about dyes. They are a much better way to make sapwood look like heartwood, and to color wood in general. Cherry can be stained, but it is notorious for blotching. Boards with nice consistent grain don't blotch, but a lot of cherry isn't that consistent and it can blotch something awful. You can eliminate blotching by spraying dye or no-wipe stain or toners, or you can try one of the pre-conditioning methods folks talk about, rave about, curse about, etc.

John
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#16
It's hard to imagine how you are going to make cherry, alder plywood, and prefinished birch, blend all nice and pretty together.
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#17
I am messing around with some dye on cherry currently. Trying to get new cherry to match older existing cabinets. Its sure not an easy process. As far as oil based stains blotching cherry I found that certain brands were much better than others. I've done big projects and not a board blotched when using the best brands. The particular brand I really liked is no longer manufactured, that's why I'm trying dyeing now.
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#18
The best way to avoid blotching with dye is to spray it on in a coat that doesn't pool or run, and to never, ever, wipe it. I know people say you should flood on dye and wipe off the excess, but when I've done that with blotch prone woods I get the worst blotching ever. Spraying completely eliminates the problem. I've used DNA, water, and blends of the two for my spray dyes. All work fine as long as you don't apply too much.

Transtint Brown Mahogany does a pretty good job of making new cherry look aged. That's where I start when I want that look, and adjust from there if needed.

About the best wiping stain I've used for low blotching is SW's BAC Wiping Stain. I won't say it can't blotch, but it has less tendency to do so than most others I've used. It's solvent based so it dries very quickly, too. The only down side is you must spray the first coat of whatever over it. Sanding to at least 325 grit also helps minimize blotching, especially if you plan to use a wiping stain.

John
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#19
Thanks for your insight John. I also am having blotching problems when wiping the transtint on. I thought it must be some other factor. I will have to try the spraying. I dread that as I use a fuji hvlp with the 1 qt cup and cleanup's a PITA. I should get a spray gun with the small bottles, but then I've found in the past that air has its own problems with contamination and water, etc. that's why I went the Fuji way.

Heres a picture of some cherry cabinets I built and finished about 15 yrs back. Theres another wall full also, but they look the same. You can probably see they have some pretty wild grain, lots of curl and grain variance. Plenty of sap that needed to blend in. It was just some common MN grown cherry, nothing special. I sanded to 220, stained with Mautz oil stain and finished with precat laquer. There's no blotching anywhere. The shop I bought the Mautz from had told me that stain was superior and would not cause blotching. I seem to remember they mentioned a very high solids content or something to that effect. It worked out fine for me and I used it on other projects also. In the last few years I haven't been able to find Mautz products but have been told SW acquired the company.









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#20
rschissler said:


It's hard to imagine how you are going to make cherry, alder plywood, and prefinished birch, blend all nice and pretty together.




Uv Birch would be on the insides and not showing. Sides would have Alder end panels. Face frames would be cherry. The only thing I need to blend is Alder with Cherry.
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