Finish for Cherry?

[ufg8r85]

I'm making a band saw box out of cherry. The face piece has a beautiful grain, it also has a small knot and the surrounding grain looks like a butterfly. What are some ideas for finishing this piece so the natural wood is accentuated.
Thanks in advance,
Steve

[Crockett]

Hi Steve,
I use cherry a lot and really like the natural look I get when I use General Finishes polyurethane. It really showcases the natural state of the wood and its grain. If I want a more traditional cherry look (more of a redish color),without the wait for natural aging, I use a coat of General Finishes Georgian Cherry first then the polyurethane. I mention the brand of poly only because that is what I use, I am sure most brands will do the trick.
take care
Al

[Tarheel]

I just finished building a cherry shaker table and a weather center (hydrometer, thermometer and barometer). I chose to use Waterlox and am glad I did. That stuff really is easy to use, dries nice and hard and leaves a great finish on cherry. No matter what finish you use, please don't stain(sorry Crockett)!

The cherry will naturally darken to a wonderful hew just by leaving the piece in natural sunlight with about 3-4 coats of Waterlox!

Good luck with bandsaw box!

Wayne

[drumpriest]

General finishes Seal-A-Cell and Arm-A-Seal work great for me on cherry. I agree with Wayne, don't stain cherry, let time do the trick.

I really enjoy bandsaw boxes, a fun project. Enjoy yourself.

[JimD]

An oil finish will make fancy grain more obvious but also decrease the "shimmer". I finished some fancy grain maple with one coat of boiled linseed oil followed by a week of drying and then multiple coats of lacquer as recommended by Wood Magazine. My wife likes the effect on her jewelry box as did my daughter. Oil will also darken cherry but this would happen from sunlight anyway.

Jim

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Another General Finishes vote here. Seal-A-Cell has a slight amber tint to it so a couple coats could start the cherry in the right direction. You could alway use .5 - 1# cut of Garnet shellac to bring out the color. I personally am mostly using Arm-R-Seal only on most of my projects, including walnut and cherry and it really pops grain since it includes oil as well as urethane. I skip the BLO and just use the Arm-R-Seal. It wipes on and is soooo smooth.

[gerti]

For small cherry pieces I like Rockler's PU Gel. It goes on really thin, and the look is much closer to an oiled look than a PU plastic coating. But you still get the protection of PU.

[WoodButcher26]

Hearing some good stuff about this General Finishes brand, never heard of it. Where do you buy it?


Kim

[Pappy]

Woodcraft carries it.

[JimD]

I finished some cherry plywood since my initial post with Hydrokote Pre-catalized lacquer. It finished as the "best buy" in FWW to General Finishes "best finish". the Hydrokote is $30/gallon, the General Finishes is a lot more (about twice). I sprayed it with a Wagner conversion gun and it looked great. I also tried brushing it and it works pretty well but does not level itself as well as some other finishes I have used.

I would not stain cherry - I hate it when Norm does it. It will darken quickly if you expose it to sunlight. Be a little patient.

Jim

[MilDoc]

Another vote for anything General Finishes makes. I love Seal-A-Cell and Arm-R-Seal and their PolyAcrylic Blend is an excellent brush on finish. Go to their web site:

http://www.generalfinishes.com/index.htm

for more info, and be sure to click on Finishing Tips for lots of good info on how-to-do-it.