I built new cherry doors and drawers for my bathroom vanity and finished them with BLO. After 2 months on the sun porch, they still aren't dark enough. I'm hoping for a brown like the cherry bowl on the right, which was finished with only mineral oil. I don't wan't to lose the pretty grain. My previous projects with shellac always end up alligatored. Any advice?
Yes you can get some patience from Rockler just go there when they are having a good sale and stand in one of their long lines with a new checker.That will teach ya some patience.
Btw very nice looking doors.I love the color.
Is your cherry from the same type of Cherry tree? In Maryland we have "black cherry" growing all over. But when I go to Woodcraft and buy cherry, theirs is a much lighter color of cherry. When I tried to mix the two there was a very obvious difference in color that no amount of sun tanning will ever change.
Jim's suggestion has value, several chemicals will darken cherry. The thing that concerns me is that you have applied BLO. BLO is a film finish; a very, very weak one…but still a film. Anything you do now is taking a gamble, while waiting may be painful it might be the best approach.
Those doors are absolutely beautiful! I would let patience dominate.
That being said, last year I made a large cherry cabinet for our downstairs "play room". It's a basement level room without any windows.
My wife wanted it darker, and since there is no natural light to energize the darkening process I stained the wood with Minwax cherry stain.
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