when I tested it. I have a cherry desk nearing completion that I'll be finishing soon. Normally I just put my top coat on the cherry and use no stain or coloring...which I believe is against federal law . Anyway, to give this desk a darker color from the getgo I intend to apply a coat of garnet shellac, then use a varnish on it. So, rummaging around for my flakes and jars I came across about a pint of garnet that I mixed back in 2015 (8/13/15, to be precise...I date my shellac jars when I mix them). Anyway, I was about to toss it and though I'd test it first. It's still good! I've had mixed flakes last as long as a year with no problem (the normal recommendation is they last 6 months) but this is a new record for me. Now I can put my flakes back in the fridge.

Edited February 17, 20206 yr by Fred W. Hargis Jr

13 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

which I believe is against federal law

Wait until they include breathing!

Fred, on a test piece you may want to try (1) coat of BLO before the garnet shellac.  The BLO visually pops the grain.  Have fun.

Danl

On 2/17/2020 at 2:19 PM, Danl said:

Fred, on a test piece you may want to try (1) coat of BLO before the garnet shellac.  The BLO visually pops the grain.  Have fun.

Danl

I second this.   Four or five years ago, I made a "keeping chest" (sort of like a blanket chest but smaller) for my wife.  I had one nice board and planned so I could get it all out of it.

 

In an experiment, I put on a coat of BLO and took it out to the patio in the summer sun during the days for a week.  Not only to help cure the BLO but to give it some sun exposure.   Then I applied a few coats of SealCoat.   BAM!  It seemed to get 10 years of patina in a week.

 

Early in my woodworking career, I made a candle/match cabinet.  I didn't have many tools to I reduced the thickness of the wood with a RAS and wobble dado blade, then smoothed out with a hand plane.  Like I said, lacking a lot of tools and probably less experience.  My first big project was a  maple corner cabinet, jumping off the deep end.   Then I made a cherry sconce that pretty closely matched both of them (initially).  Over the last 35+ years, the cherry has aged, and gotten tan lines

 

I guess I should add that a friend of mine did a presentation at the club a couple of years ago about aging cherry with a lye solution.  I have experimented with this a few times and not really followed up on it.

• You have to do trials with various concentrations of lye solution to see what color you are going to get.
• It is very hazardous to your skin and especially eyes.
• Since the meth epidemic, pure lye can be hard to find.  Some drain cleaners have additional chemicals in them.
• Different pieces of wood, or different parts of the wood, can come out very differently with the same process.
• It is a very much "ready, fire, aim"  -- you have no control over the process as it progresses.   As a former colleague used to say, "You don't want to give up the whip." (and I always hoped he was talking about horses).

Several years ago when Steve Mickley was the Wood forum finishing guru I did a entertainment center and asked him a lot of  questions. Best finish on cherry he said is BLO as stated to pop the grain. By the way this works on most woods with good grains but do expect a reasonable amount of darkening. Then use the garnet shellac to even out the color of sapwood and heartwood. This is not a perfect solution but does work . Then as Keith said you will get tan lines in  time if it is a table or holds something.

 

I do not have a current pic of the side tablet I built but finish is totally garnet shellac in a french polish. In the same room is a entertainment center with garnet shellac and varnish. The entertainment center has darkened significantly and the side table still looks red like the shellac.

 

New finish on Entertainment Center

Behind my grandson is the same door panel after 13 years.

This is the side table. No current pic but after 14 years is no where near as dark as the entertainment center and was made from the same batch of cherry.

Fred, back to the original note, that's interesting that a 3 1/2 year old shellac still works.   I've used SealCoat that put on the back of a shelf that was a bit older than that.   But I've always been under the impression they have something in the solvent that decreases esterification (increases shelf life).

 

I read something recently about how to finish cherry -- first apply a red stain, then apply a green stain (green neutralizes red), then apply a finish, then apply a glaze (presumably burnt sienna (light red) or burnt umber (dark red).  Hmmm

Yeah, I have some Zinnser and it does keep well, but I even date those cans (along with keep them in a plastic bag). But the shellac I had worked quite well and my desk is nearing completion (pictures to follow). This still hasn't changed my opinion about just mix enough for the current project. But it does suggest not throwing any out until you check it. That finish schedule sounds interesting, and like a lot of extra work. Uses a lot of stuff i wouldn't normally have on hand as well, can't imagine a hobbyist having red or green stain. As a pro, you may have that stuff and if you try it I'd be interested to see the results. For this desk i stuck to the garnet shellac followed by the Cabot varnish. I've used BLO before (quite a bit, actually) and really like it; but this piece had to match something else in the room that was also finished with garnet shellac and Cabot 8000.