# Fuming Cherry with Ammonia?



## sbrinser (Sep 8, 2014)

Hi everyone,

I am new to the forum and am looking for some advice on finishing up a Tea Box for my fiancee. Has anyone had any experience with fuming Cherry Wood with Ammonia? Though many seem to say that it can not be done, I found some pictures of a cherry cradle that was fumed for 2 weeks and love the outcome. The information is in a thread from 2009 that I found on this same forum. I am looking to darken the box pretty quickly. Any advice about how to best finish this project would be appreciated. 

Thanks in advance!


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## RandyReed (Jul 30, 2014)

Cherry wood is not a tannin rich wood like Oak is. "If" you could fume cherry, it would take a long time. I doubt anyone has had any luck trying to fume cherry. I suspect the person you read about simply experienced a change in the color merely by light hitting the wood over a 2 week period. You would have more luck putting the cherry outside in the sunlight for 2 weeks.

In this case, you could use lye, but I don't suggest anyone using that. You can get the same results simply by using dye stains.


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

If memory serves me correctly cherry darkens most with exposure to UV light. Sunlight would be the easiest way to darken it, by leaving the box out in direct sunlight for as long as possible. To accelerate it I'd try a few things before resorting to chemicals. To start, I'd try a UV lamp. They can be somewhat inexpensive and put off a surprising amount of fake sunlight. In a pinch, fluroscent lights also put out a surprising abpmount of UV. 

If all else fails, you could always make friends with someone who owns a tanning bed


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## Getting better (Dec 3, 2009)

The best way I have found to "age" Cherry is with Potassium Dichromate.


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## sbrinser (Sep 8, 2014)

Thank you for all of the replies! I am going to do some testing and see what the best result is.


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

sbrinser said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> I am new to the forum and am looking for some advice on finishing up a Tea Box for my fiancee. Has anyone had any experience with fuming Cherry Wood with Ammonia? Though many seem to say that it can not be done, I found some pictures of a cherry cradle that was fumed for 2 weeks and love the outcome. The information is in a thread from 2009 that I found on this same forum. I am looking to darken the box pretty quickly. Any advice about how to best finish this project would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks in advance!


I've been aging cherry for over 25 years. It best way I know of is with a small amount of lye mixed with water. The more lye you use the darker it gets. 









This is a headboard aged to match a 28 year old bed. It's really quite simple and the wood will not look like it was stained.

I posted a thread on the process called, No stain cherry stain.

Al


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

epicfail48 said:


> If memory serves me correctly cherry darkens most with exposure to UV light. Sunlight would be the easiest way to darken it, by leaving the box out in direct sunlight for as long as possible. To accelerate it I'd try a few things before resorting to chemicals. To start, I'd try a UV lamp. They can be somewhat inexpensive and put off a surprising amount of fake sunlight. In a pinch, fluroscent lights also put out a surprising abpmount of UV.
> 
> If all else fails, you could always make friends with someone who owns a tanning bed


Might take a month for the sun.

Al


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