cherry wood and the sun

[Keye]

There is another active thread concerning how to darken cherry. I did not what to be accused of stealing that thread. This one is about how not to darken cherry

In the other thread there is a comment on placing the cherry in the sun. There is a right way and a wrong way.

About 20/25 years ago I made 10 raised panel doors out of cherry. As I finished each one I placed them on the floor leaning against a wall, The opposite wall faced west with 6 windows reaching about 12" above the floor. After I finished the last door and started to move them. I could not figure out why the shadow on the face of each door did not move when I moved the door. I finally realized the sun coming in from the west was hitting the lower part of each door. My first thought was I was going to have to do a lot of sanding. My last thought was sanding was not going to solve the problem. I had 10 doors which I could not used on my project.

The moral of the story is be very very careful where you place your cherry wood.

I am about to start small project and want to darken the cherry. After reading the other thread I am not sure what I am going to do.

 

[RichardH]

not sure I understand why you couldn’t just even the doors out by placing in full sun for a couple days? I have had good luck sun tanning cherry by placing them on saw horses in my driveway for a few days before putting on the finish. i tend not to stain cherry but rather embrace its natural color and grain and just let the wood do what it wants to do. I like that look and since my only client is the wife I don’t really need to worry about trying to change the wood or hiding the color variation. This is a recent bookcase and office credenza I finished with watco danish oil after a few days in the sun.

 

[Dovetail]

You can kick off its natural darkening by exposing it to sunlight. You can also stain it. My favorite way is to just wait 15 years. .
It will darken over time no matter what though.

 

[Keye]

not sure I understand why you couldn’t just even the doors out by placing in full sun for a couple days? I have had good luck sun tanning cherry by placing them on saw horses in my driveway for a few days before putting on the finish. i tend not to stain cherry but rather embrace its natural color and grain and just let the wood do what it wants to do. I like that look and since my only client is the wife I don’t really need to worry about trying to change the wood or hiding the color variation. This is a recent bookcase and office credenza I finished with watco danish oil after a few days in the sun.

I actually tried what you suggested. I tried many different ways. I never could make it work. I like to leave cherry its natural color and watch it age over time.

 

[jlwest]

There is another active thread concerning how to darken cherry. I did not what to be accused of stealing that thread. This one is about how not to darken cherry

In the other thread there is a comment on placing the cherry in the sun. There is a right way and a wrong way.

About 20/25 years ago I made 10 raised panel doors out of cherry. As I finished each one I placed them on the floor leaning against a wall, The opposite wall faced west with 6 windows reaching about 12" above the floor. After I finished the last door and started to move them. I could not figure out why the shadow on the face of each door did not move when I moved the door. I finally realized the sun coming in from the west was hitting the lower part of each door. My first thought was I was going to have to do a lot of sanding. My last thought was sanding was not going to solve the problem. I had 10 doors which I could not used on my project.

The moral of the story is be very very careful where you place your cherry wood.

I am about to start small project and want to darken the cherry. After reading the other thread I am not sure what I am going to do.

Moving them around to to even out the exposure should have fixed the problem

 

[RichardH]

I actually tried what you suggested. I tried many different ways. I never could make it work. I like to leave cherry its natural color and watch it age over time.

I wonder if the finish fully curing combined to cause issues? Cherry will darken regardless of if you have a finish on it or not but maybe the timing of when the raw wood was exposed to the sun during the finish drying cycle caused issues?

I try to sun tan cherry before I put a finish on it after I have sanded it but before I have put the glued up sub assemblies together into a final piece. My goal is to have as many flat surfaces as possible to minimize shadows. So in the case of the bookshelf picture above I glued up and sanded the end panels, back, top/bottom and shelfs than put those pieces in the sun before adding the cross members that hold the two sides together. Alternately if that is not practical I just set a timer to remind me to turn the piece every couple hours to even out the shadows.

 

[Keye]

Moving them around to to even out the exposure should have fixed the problem

It did not solve the problem. The wood did not have a finish on it. I belonged to the York Woodworkers club at the time. I had suggestions from everyone, even John Leake. There was always a line.