Dear Bruce: I came across a little booklet a couple of months ago
entitled "From Gunk to Glow" by George Grotz. It was the 31st printing
in 1975 so may be a little out of date. Anyhow he writes of mahogany
stain (and I quote):
"Most mahogany furniture is a rich brown, yet you will not be able to
find any brown mahogany stain. This color can be obtained by starting
out with Maple stain and adding small amounts of Walnut to it until
you have just the shade you want.
"You can use the same process to get any shade of Cherry stain you
want. In this case start out with Mahogany and add either plain Maple
or your Brown Mahogany mixture. For lighter shades of Cherry, start
with your Walnut-Maple combination and add a little Mahogany.
"With different mixtures of these three stains - Maple, Walnut and
Mahogany - you can match virtually any wood color. To lighten the
shade of any given color, you simply dilute the stain with
turpentine."
Is this information of any use to you? I cannot vouch for it but plan to
try it on my next project.
Regards
John Johns
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