Staining Birch to match plastic Rosewood

Fine then I’ll take anything right now but hey a challenge is always a good thing. They say (Charles Neil) Birch or other softwoods can be persuaded to match just about anything, like ta here it here go! Birch is cheap at $28 a sheet @ 3/4” Cherry is $87 so for less than 1 of the cherry I got 2 3/4 and 1 1/4 sheets to make this TV stand. They gave me a hard time for asking to pick from the stack but I got my way and still the panels were not that great. Super thin veneers and no way to sand it you have to be very careful! Cutting it is even more disastrous! I finally fine tuned the Festool MFT table I got this spring for a good deal and it did a good job crosscutting wider panels with minimal chipout of the veneer. (even with a new blade had some) Starting w/stain sealer then red mahogany stain, the next day using Transtint brown mahogany dye mixed w/ alcohol I could get a dark stain that was just right. This is the first time using a dye for me and it is the way from now on! Darkened up the pale stain fine and mixed in a spray bottle with alcohol will dry in no time! so then a coat of Minwax Polyshades Old Maple for some warm tone, a final coat of satin poly. This is way dark for me but to try a new finishing method was fun. Oh and don’t let your Fibbinaci gauges dry in the sun!

-- $tudie