Home » Audio » Craftsmen » Matching Colour with Wood
Matching Colour with Wood [message #29564] Thu, 21 July 2005 14:53 Go to next message
GarMan is currently offline  GarMan
Messages: 960
Registered: May 2009
Illuminati (2nd Degree)
Are there rules of thumb on matching stain/dye tones and colour with different types of wood? I know one approach is to not worry about matching wood and colour and just do whatever looks good to you. However, I'm looking for established standards.

Do colours look best when they're used with the wood that they're named after? For example, Golden Oak, Dark Walnut, Cherry, Mahogany, Yellow Maple. Should Cherry coloured stain be used in non-cherry wood such as oak or mahogany? Should Cherry coloured stain even be used on cherry at all, seeing the wood already has a red tone?

Gar.

Re: Cherry is a perfect example of why stain [message #29565 is a reply to message #29564] Fri, 22 July 2005 15:09 Go to previous messageGo to next message
BillEpstein is currently offline  BillEpstein
Messages: 886
Registered: May 2009
Illuminati (2nd Degree)
First, the marketing dep't. folks at Minwax or Bartley's or whatever call a color a color.
I just finished staining some Poplar horns Walnut with Minwax Chestnut! It's redder. Or I could have used their Walnut but it's too dark.
What you really have stain for is 2-fold:
one, to blend or eliminate the contrast 'tween heartwood and sapwood, and, two, to acheive an aged 'patina' type coloration.
Or perhaps three, you just want some purple pine.
Cherry has a strong contrast bewteen the light and dark, heartwood and sapwood a lot of people find objectionable. Stain removes the contrast.
Cherry also darkens with age. Stain gives father time a kick in the ass.
Go to Depot or Lowe's or any kitchen cabinet dealer and look at the various wood cabinet displays. You will find 4 or 5 'colors' of cherry from natural thru uniform medium to dark and obscured grain that looks like plastic.
Only the commercial oil stains have these names and they only vaguely resemble the color of the wood.
Dye stains like Transtint also have wood names: I just bought 'Red Mahogany' to stain Pacific Alder Cherry. Yeah, really!

Color matching is tough. [message #29572 is a reply to message #29564] Thu, 28 July 2005 14:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
billfort is currently offline  billfort
Messages: 34
Registered: May 2009
Baron

I kept getting into trouble trying to ‘match’ wood species and colored stains to get a uniform look but finally decided to listen to what my antique dealer grandfather always told me – “stick with a natural oil finish and let the beauty and color of the wood speak for itself, it’ll match just fine”.

I think he was right with furniture restoration & building and it holds true now with my audio projects. This picture shows my current listening room where the turntable is natural oiled oak, the speakers oiled cherry, the tuner oiled African mahogany and the amps SA mahogany (the fake cherry ‘picture’ laminate flooring doesn’t count). All quite different wood species but the natural look seems to blend nicely.


Re: Color matching is tough. [message #29573 is a reply to message #29572] Sat, 30 July 2005 21:33 Go to previous message
Shane is currently offline  Shane
Messages: 1117
Registered: May 2009
Illuminati (3rd Degree)
GarMan - that is just gorgeous!!!!!

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