Matching new and old finishes

Interesting article came in today: http://blog.woodshopnews.com/workbench/a-timeless-match/?utm_source=woodshop-enewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=textlink&utm_campaign=enewsletter-101916

Well, first off, he's got flat-sawn on old stock and rift-sawn on new.  I'm wrapping up that church job and even though we got all the (red oak) lumber from the same supplier and just put varnish on it, there's a wide difference in color which we tried to minimize by locating pieces closer or further apart.  And generally plywood will take stains differently than solids.

Like the article says, though, the stain (dye or pigment) will gradually fade while the wood is taking on patina both from UV and the finish.  So one is going lighter while the other is going darker.  Good luck trying to synchronize those things out of your control so that it has an even color over time.

But when I do touch up on pieces, you do need to get a reasonable match.  Ambient light has an effect (whether it's in a basement rec room with florescent , LED, or incandescent lights or in the front room in front of a south- or north-facing window, and whether the wall coloring is beige, green, pink, red, or whatever. 

Viewing angle also makes a difference -- walk around, close and far, high and low -- all can change the geometric chatoyance.   A great example of this is a diamond pattern veneer.   From one angle, the 12 and 6 o'clock segments are light and the 3 and 9 are dark.  Move 45 degrees and they all match.   Another 45 and the light and dark areas have swapped from what they were.

White is a bear, too.   I have about a dozen different white lacquers.   I normally need two or three to add some color or another (too yellow, too light, too red, too umber).  I remember once working on a student desk with a lot of marker stains.   I decided just to recoat the whole top.   The back third was a different hue.   Put on more, still a different hue.  OK, I pull the desk away from the wall and all of a sudden, it all matched.   Just the difference in the way the light was coming through the window behind made a mismatch color.

Fortunately, a lot of the low- and mid-range furniture (and even some of the high-end) is done with toners and grabbing one or two in the right neighborhood with the right application can get a decent match.

But then, that's why the pay us the big bucks ;-)