Tamarack Stain On Walnut

[caseylara]

I purchased walnut slab cabinets in Tamarack from City Cabinets (which are gorgeous btw), and I’m trying to match this tamarack stain for a custom front face on a cabinet I’m building. Anyways, I bought the tamarack stain from you guys as well, but I cannot get it to match at all. It’s far too warm/light compared to the doors of the cabinets I bought. I’ve tried several methods and used the recommended poly as well as other types/colors as well.

Is there a particular kind of walnut that’s used for the veneer? Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated, as this custom front face will be next to these cabinet doors from you guys and I really need them to match.

[ChadBarker]

Is the application making the stain appear blotchy? Do you have a photo you could post?

There are several ways to apply stain. Our process is not the easiest to replicate on site, and depending on the tools you have available, achieving a perfectly uniform match can be difficult. That said, you can get extremely close. Applying stain with a foam brush or rag, is more of an entry-level approach and can result in uneven absorption, especially across different wood types.

Do you have a sprayer? Ideally, to best match our process, you would use an HVLP sprayer and apply two separate light coats of stain, allowing each coat to dry in between. This closely mirrors how we apply stain in-house: we spray using a four-gun cabinet system, stack the parts in an oven for approximately 12 minutes to allow the stain to set, then force-dry them using heated air and infrared light—similar to our final topcoat process on cabinet doors. Applying stain in two light passes helps maintain uniformity, as light spots can develop with hand application or inconsistent spraying.

This is the sprayer I purchased a while back for personal projects. The cost is quite high, and if you’re only trying to match a single door, it’s likely not a practical option:

3M Performance Spray Gun Starter Kit, 26778, Includes PPS 2.0 Paint Spray Cup System, 15 Replaceable Gravity HVLP Atomizing Heads, Air Control Valve

If budget is a concern, Harbor Freight can be a good option for an inexpensive sprayer. Another alternative would be to try a basic spray bottle from Home Depot. I haven’t personally tested this method, but the theory is sound and it may work reasonably well to lightly mist the stain and achieve a more even application.

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 4 days ago by ChadBarker.
• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 4 days ago by ChadBarker.

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[caseylara]

The stain goes on nicely, not blotchy. It’s more the color itself, see photo. It always ends up lighter/warmer. So I’m guessing it’s the actual wood?

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[caseylara]

I should mention my test piece on the left is also walnut like the cabinet.

[ChadBarker]

The bottom portion of your wood sample does appear a bit light. Most black walnut is typically fairly dark, and while the grain of your sample does look consistent with walnut, the color of the veneer itself is on the lighter side.

Normally, I would say that most walnut veneer is sourced from the same mills in the eastern United States. However, I have been seeing more products advertised from a wider range of sources lately, so I can’t say with certainty why this particular piece is so light. It appears to resemble walnut sapwood, which is typically taken from the outer portion of the walnut tree.

I will post a few photos of the walnut plywood we currently have on the shop floor from another project so you can gauge how dark the walnut veneers we are using actually are. I will also include a reference image showing walnut sapwood alongside the range of typical walnut color variation. That said, veneered walnut is almost always sourced from the heartwood, which is the most desirable part of the tree, so I’m not sure why veneer would be taken from sapwood—this is very uncommon.

Please note we sell plywood doors and drawer fronts by themselves over on barkerdoor.com. They are not expensive.

https://www.barkerdoor.com/Slab-Flat-Wood-Cabinet-Doors-s/54.htm

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[caseylara]

Thanks for the photos! Yes, that is raw walnut you pointed to. Here’s some more pictures of the raw walnut I have. I laid down my testing piece on top for some reference. The stain color looks great until I put it next to the existing cabinets.

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[ChadBarker]

The raw material looks good. Have you applied the clear coat over the stain on that sample? The stain usually tones down once the clear top coats are added, so that may be why the color appears a bit stark. Our piece has the final top coats applied, which blend the underlying stain and slightly soften the contrast.

[caseylara]

Yes, the test pieces do have polycrlic applied in clear satin as the clear coat

[ChadBarker]

Hmm, yes, then it would likely be either the natural color variation of the underlying walnut or the process in which the stain is being applied.

Perhaps adding additional coats would help achieve a closer match. We spray all stains onto the panels, and then they sit in a stacking oven for about 12 minutes while the stain slowly dries. This spraying technique allows more stain to remain on the surface, whereas wiping tends to remove a significant amount from the face.

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