Interior cherrywood finish

[Todd Stevens]

Anybody have a line on a specific product(s) that reasonably matches the interior cherrywood finish?  Seems like info that should be here somewhere but a couple of quick searches don't find it.  

I've had a couple of cherry wood project panels from Home Depot stashed under the mattress and, well, the time for projects has come!

[Edward Schmidt]

We have used WATCO Cherry Oil and Danish Oil on cherry plywood and US cherry with moderate success. Aging and oxidation play their inevitable roles. Full disclosure; I am color blind also!

Sandy 51742 J-42 # 66 ETOSXLII

On Jan 18, 2026, at 7:52 PM, 'Todd Stevens' via J/4X Owner's Group <j4x-owne...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Anybody have a line on a specific product(s) that reasonably matches the interior cherrywood finish?  Seems like info that should be here somewhere but a couple of quick searches don't find it.  

I've had a couple of cherry wood project panels from Home Depot stashed under the mattress and, well, the time for projects has come!

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[Todd Stevens]

Being somewhat remote from civilization, I used vegetable oil from the galley on a piece. (Hey, it works for the cutting board…)  It made a good color match, but of course without any gloss.  Absent any better advice, I’ll probably put on a thin layer of polyurethane when I get hold of some.  

Asking now because I’m headed to San Diego next week and putting a shopping list together.

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[Michael Moradzadeh]

I'd be a bit surprised if you are able to get polyurethane to stick or look good over cooking oil.

You MIGHt be best off sticking with the oil approach.  You can get a pretty good sheen and a hard finish with tung oil, and I'd be hopeful of it marrying with the cooking oil for a nice finish.

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[Mark Wensell]

Im in the process of experimenting with matching the interior wood color as well.   First project is building out new cherry plywood instrument panel covers for the nav station and I'd like it to match as best as I can as it's pretty visible.

I found this thread on the J109 site pretty helpful in identifying the Epiphanes Rubbed Effect Varnish as the interior finished J-boats frequently used:

https://j109.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1432

I also am going to try this method (Milk Paint/Lye) of aging the wood and timing how long I leave it on (to hopefully get some different shades to match):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVA246Gb_54

And another method using just Easy-Off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLw6cWRVPHY

I'm using the Home Depot project panel as well for testing but the wood had a lot of heartwood in it, so I have a better quality sheet on order for the finished project.  Should have my trials done in the next week or so and will report back.

Mark

[Todd Stevens]

> On Jan 19, 2026, at 10:56, Mark Wensell <mark.w...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Im in the process of experimenting with matching the interior wood color as well. First project is building out new cherry plywood instrument panel covers for the nav station and I'd like it to match as best as I can as it's pretty visible.
>
> I found this thread on the J109 site pretty helpful in identifying the Epiphanes Rubbed Effect Varnish as the interior finished J-boats frequently used:
>
> https://j109.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1432
>
> I also am going to try this method (Milk Paint/Lye) of aging the wood and timing how long I leave it on (to hopefully get some different shades to match):
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVA246Gb_54
>
> And another method using just Easy-Off:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLw6cWRVPHY
>
> I'm using the Home Depot project panel as well for testing but the wood had a lot of heartwood in it, so I have a better quality sheet on order for the finished project. Should have my trials done in the next week or so and will report back.
>
> Mark
>

Interesting. I do have a can of Easy-Off on board. Albeit a bit rusty. But I’m not a fan of dark wood for sailboat interiors. There’s little enough light down below to begin with. Looks like a cool method for something though.

I too am working on control panel pieces. A little crude I’m afraid, since I have only hand tools on board to work with. I miss my workshop. But the chart table and a few other pieces could also use refinishing soon. Work in progress:

[David Jade]

We had an extra set cabinets built into our J/46 (where the pilot berth used to be). They match so well you can’t tell they are not original to the boat unless you look at the slightly different grain structure up close. Almost a perfect color and tone match.

 

When I asked about the staining process, he told me that he used a combination of a closely matching stain from Sherwin Williams and acetone washing afterwards to achieve the very close color match. I suspect it took some trial and error.

 

I also had a set of new instrument panel blanks made at the same time as well, and they match so closely you can’t tell they are new (other than the slight grain pattern difference).

 

We had them made at Larsen Marine, in Waukegan, IL right after we bought our boat (3 years ago now). Maybe the guy there remembers how he got such a close stain match.

 

David             _/)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

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[Sean Motta]

I have found Epiphanes rubbed effect to be an extremely close match for me. 

Sean

Sean Motta

USA 52910

J/42 Hull # 50

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[Todd Stevens]

Good info, thanks folks. I’ll add a tin of Epiphanes to my small kit of potions.

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