Poplar Lowboy - Cherry Finish Part -1-

The Test Board...you do those, don't you??????

• Sand the poplar to 180

• Wash-coat is a General Finishes (water-based) High Performance Topcoat mixed in equal parts with water

• Dye is General Finishes (water-based) Cinnamon

• Topcoat is General Finishes High Performance

• Stain is General Finishes (water-based) Black Cherry

This picture is of poplar sapwood dyed with the Cinnamon. Don't forget to first spray the board with the wash-coat mixture. The wash-coat will ensure even take-up of Cinnamon dye. Once the wash-coat is dry, scuff the raised grain with 320 sandpaper, then proceed to spray enough Cinnamon dye for an even background.

Once the Cinnamon dye has dried, I cover the left side of the test board with newspaper, spray the right side with a good wet coat of General Finishes water-based High Performance topcoat straight from the can, thus sealing in the dye allowing me to stain without hindering my dye. Basically, we'll be staining right over top of the topcoat, using our stain as a glaze.

Once the High Performance has dried, I remove the paper from the left side and apply 1 coat of General Finishes water-based Black Cherry stain over the entire board. Note how the stain took smoother and lighter on the right, which was first sprayed with the High Performance topcoat. The untreated left side took the stain darker.

The left board in the picture above, is entirely of poplar heartwood. I followed the above procedure sealing the dye over with topcoat. So here is the thing, since the heartwood board will tone or stain darker, due to the fact, poplar heart is darker than the whitish sapwood. The heart wood board will  shade about 1 coat  darker. So to even out, I had to apply a second coat of stain to the sapwood board.