Ozzie writes:

Hi Groop:
Haven't been shooting my mouth off in a while and thought I would

finally get something together that'll make a good subject to discuss.
 

A little background:
My wife and I have been in the midst of a recovery and remodeling job

of our home after a freak flash flood a year ago. We are at the stage

where I have decided to build our own kitchen the way we want it.
 

For monetary reasons, I have taken on the task of using Baltic birch 3/4

plywood for the case work and face frames and doors will be cherry.

The cost of cherry veneer ply is $95. and the birch is $37.  It didn't take

much for me to decide which one I was going to buy 15 sheets of.
 

Now the challenge I have is to match the birch with the cherry fronts.

I'm a stain mixer from way back and can match just about anything, but

the quandary I'm in is the grain of the birch is white and the cherry is

dark. See pics. I have done a bunch of test pieces to try and match the

cherry dark background and I have not been too successful. If I was

dealing with solid wood I could and have dyed the wood dark and

sanded it off leaving dark grain background. With veneered plywood,

it is unpractical because of sand thru's. I've used glazes to give the

effect of dark graining, but I didn't like the results.

A faux finisher I'm not.
 

What would you cabinet makers do in my position?
 

Your friend and cheapskate

Ozzie
The Woodchest
Elmira, NY

 

Cherry with Dark Grain:

Birch Veneer Plywood:

Birch after Dye and Glaze: