Bottlehead Forum: Re: OT: A few answers on cabinet finishing (long) by Till E.

I hope Doc doesn't mind the bandwidth, but I imagine others might want this info for their speaker cabinets. Also, this info comes from many sources over a lifetime but the best single source is a book by a well known Conservator , Jeff Jewitt, called "Hand Applied Finishes".
All commercial staining is done in layers. Try to duplicate a finish color with a can of stain, can't be done.
So you mix stains, add dye stain to oils and varnishes and tint with shades of shellac.
Cherry gets "blotchy", i.e., too much stain here, not enough there as much or more than Pine. And it's more susceptible to improper sanding and scraping.
So the first thing you do is sand up through ALL the grits, 100, 150 and 220 Garnet paper using a wooden (hard) sanding block with a thin cork padding. If the block, or the pad on your random orbital sander (not advised) is soft, you will gouge the wood, which only shows up after you apply finish!
You sand in straight lines back and forth 2 or 3 times each pass and wipe the sanding dust from the work as you go with a soft cloth, also slap the sandpaper, actually slap it which clears it of much of the dust. That will keep larger pieces of grit from scratching where you just passed with smaller grit. Give a little extra attention to the area near where panels meet.
After you sand with 220, wet, don't drown the piece with distilled water that doesn't have minerals to stain the work. This will raise the grain for final sanding, with 320 grit and will highlight trouble areas.
Okay, now we discuss the oil. One uses "boiled" linseed oil here because of it's properties. That means your finish wil not be Tung oil. You can try Tung oil, it may work. Like a lot of technique that's decades old, there may be no reason why Tung won't work as well as linseed. But you should experiment. I never have.
So you wipe on enough Linseed oil with a lint-free rag (handi-wipes)to wet but not flood the work. Let it dry 48 hours and then lightly sand with 320. Wipe off the dust with a tack rag.
Now you need 'garnet colored' shellac flakes. You buy them at Woodcraft or Constantines or Garrett-Wade. Mix them in a 2 pound cut which is 2 lbs of shellac to a gallon of denatured alcohol. If this darkens the wood enough, use blond shellac or varnish or even polyurethane (not water-based)for a topcoat.Or put on more coats of Garnet to further darken.This process will begin with a light honey color but will quickly darken into a rich reddish tone.
Cherry will continue to darken atmospherically for months, even years.

If you need to reach a certain color, put a 'dye stain'(from the same sources as the shellac) on the raw wood. Mix 'honey amber' or other light gold-brown dye stain in several times the recommended amount of distilled water. Seal in this stain with a 1lb cut of shellac. Then use a 'gel'stain to finish toning the wood. Wipe on/wipe off to control the intensity.After a few days, a topcoat of garnet shellac will enhance and darken the tone.
Experiment with both the dye stains, the gel stains and especially, putting 'Japan' colors or artists colors in the Tung oil.
The object isn't to do this or that finish but to create the color you want. This process has evolved over centuries and I mention Jewitt's book because it condenses, not codifies the technique.
Gel stain may be put right on the raw cherry and if handles properly, will give you the color without blotching, But it's tricky. The in=between sealer coats of shellac and/or linseed oil make things easier. You can also build colors. Honey amber then shellac then burnt umber, etc. That is how commercial furniture is stained.
Just don't mix oil and water based products. Try not to use polyurethane, it isn't repairable and isn't needed unless you plan to serve dinner on the speakers. Shellac is highly scratch and chemical proof but susceptible to alcohol. Tung and linseed oil are tougher.
Hope this helps.