Anyone experimented and found a close wood/stain combination to Axiom's Boston Cherry finish? I need to build a stand for my VP150 for the new room.

Hey Murph:
I sent for a Boston Cherry sample a year ago, and every time I went to a hardware or paint store, I brought it with me. Unfortunately, I never found a good match.

I came to the conclusion, at the time, that I would end up having to buy and layer a bunch of different products on a test piece of cherry to find the right combination.

When do you plan on building it?

And, have you considered black? I hear it's the new black...

Thanks Mark. That's interesting to know and kind of what I expected.

I'm just back in scheming mode. I'm actually still contemplating a wall mount vs. a stand for the bottom. Some day I want to have a pair of centers above and below as it's a 106" screen so it might be nice to have the sound anchored to the center. In that case, maybe two wall mounted would match better?

And yes, black would work. Although my screen wall is a dark blue. Close enough though. The new black works with everything.

Not Boston Cherry exactly, but after Katrina we had the 'opportunity' to replace our wood flooring and along with it all the treads and railings on a flight of stairs. The flooring we put in was santos mahogany and luckily there was matching treads available. I was able to find santos mahogany handrails, but it would have cost in the neighborhood of $5k !! So we went with oak. I bought at least 15 individual stains and not one was right. So I started making 2-color blends, hoping that I didn't have to go to 3-color. I carefully measured the portions of each test sample so that I could duplicate a larger batch. I nailed it on the 3rd blend. So don't give up on trying to match the BC finish, it might be easier than you think. If I can find the pics, I'll post them.

Scott

Minwax mahogany is pretty close. You will need to let it sit longer than normal, or use several light coats (let each dry and re-coat).

Minwax is a good product. I used the stain and clearcoat when making a new railing for my stairway (in Oak), and it turned out beautiful. Needed to do several light sandings with 800 sandpaper between clearcoat layers.

Thanks all.

What type of wood are you putting the Minwax mahogany on for this result?

Straight grain cherry. You want to avoid curly. It's pretty, but a completely different look.

A couple of years ago I put down some 3/4 African Walnut hardwood on my main floor. My railing and trim on my staircase however, were a very conflicting natural oak finish so I went looking for a stain to match the flooring. Nothing I could find, was anywhere near the dark, red-tinged, brown(like chestnut but a little richer looking) so I bought myself a can of Minwax Antique Walnut in their polyshades line(the railing was varnished already so the polyshade was the better choice, imo...no sanding down to bare wood) and also bought a smaller can of black oak. I mixed, in a separate container, the Antique walnut and a touch of the black oak and tested it for colour. Once I felt it was close, I applied it and built it up with 5 coats. You can't tell the difference between the floor and the trim/railing as the combination of stains and the natural oak gave me the desired colour. If you're patient, you can mix up your own shade and darken it as required by adding more coats, or vary the next colour slightly...just don't start off too dark!

I couldn't find the test patches of the different stains, but the final results are on the last 3 pics on the "Photos' of My HT link.

Scott

General Finishes. Found in woodworking stores.

Depending on species choice, I'd sart w/ Black Cherry. You can drastically change the top color of the stain by underdying first, a red, maybe orange.

Apply sealer coat after dye and again after stain. Sand lightly with used 220 (or new 320) before first coat of varnish.

Minwax oil-based products are very good. Their water-based ones suck. I'd use a good quality wipe on poly, 3+ coats, 320 hand-sanding in between coats.

Good luck!

Perfect timing!
Back goes the water based can I bought last night to experiment with. I'm glad it was too muggy to bother getting into a messy job last night.

This is starting to be too much like a chemistry lab project in school. LOL! I hated chemistry. Loved physics. Well, at least until the advanced math started getting the better of me. As my proff told me, I was a master of concept but would always be an unwitting slave to the formulae.

I used the oil based product. I didn't realize they had a water based one.

Clarification: all water based products suck and not just Minwax. But they dry quick, easy clean up and they don't stink. Pick your poison.