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Preferred furnishings woods are maple and cherry, both have a great figure, are easy to device, and cherry has a wonderful fruity odor when cut. Maple has a couple of advantages over cherry. Perfectly figured maple is much easier to find and cheaper, and considering that it has a similar grain pattern, properly stained maple is nearly identical from cherry, however, both cherry and maple have a reputation for being difficult to finish.

Cherry and maple do not stain equally. Their extremely treasured figure arise from end grain that rises to the face of the board in irregular patterns. Most finishers attempt to stain cherry and maple utilizing pigment spots, but since end grain takes in pigment far more quickly than does face grain, the outcome is blotchy, uneven color.

Preparing the wood

Preparation techniques might fill a book, so I’ll just hit the high points here. Sand all surfaces equally, working your way up through sanding grits from course to fine, avoiding every other grit: 60, 100, 150, 220. The idea is to utilize 60 grit to get rid of tool marks and flatten large surfaces, then utilize each succeeding grit to eliminate the scratches left by the previous grit. On flat surface areas back your sandpaper with a sanding block. Utilize a store light and sight along the wood. When you have actually an even sheen without any scratches left from the previous grit you can carry on to the next grit. When sanding by hand, do not use a great deal of pressure. Just the weight of your hand and even strokes need to do the job.

Utilizing color spots

To navigate the problem of uneven pigment stain absorption, use color discolorations instead. The distinction is important. Pigment spots are composed of small nontransparent particles of color suspended in liquid. When applied to the wood, these particles lodge in pores and scratches, and the open ends of end grain where they are drawn up by capillary action, leading to a blotchy look. Pigment spots also highlight sanding errors and odd, rather than improve the figure of the wood.

Raising the grain

Water soaks into the wood and swells the fibers, resulting in fine "hairs" on an otherwise perfectly sanded surface area. It is essential, therefore, to deliberately raise the grain of the wood and sand off the hairs before using water-based dyes. To do this, merely take a clean sponge or rag soaked in warm water, damp the surface area of the wood, and let it dry. As soon as the wood dries lightly sand off the raised hairs with 320 grit sandpaper, sand just enough to remove the hairs; excessive sanding will cut through to the un-raised grain underneath, beating the function. Keep in mind to utilize a sanding block on flat surface areas. Repeat this procedure a number of times. By the 3rd wetting you should feel no more raised grain.

Picking the Color

Dye stains come in a variety of colors, generally as powder in one-ounce bottles, and are easy to mix. It is difficult to distinguish the color of the powder or a chart what the color will look like on your project, so while you’re at the store dampen a finger and stick it in the powder and wipe it on a sample of your wood or slip of paper. Find a couple of colors that look close, then a couple more at the extremes of the range you are interested in. For example, I like a deep orange-red mahogany color so I’ll pick "dark mahogany" or "cherry mahogany" for beginners, and after that get something really yellow in case the others are too red and something actually red in case they are too yellow.

Blending the Dye

There are two ways to mix dyes. You can blend them together in a single batch to get the color you want, or you can blend them by succeeding applications on your work. Because you’re going to use a number of coats of color anyhow, and considering that it’s challenging to replicate a mixture, I recommend mixing them on the work.