Matching Old Cabinets: Is This Cherry or Maple?
Actually, the pros think it might be Alder ... or Red Birch. June 28, 2013
Question
I came across these cabinets on a recent job and I need to build a matching oven cabinet. I cannot tell if the cabinets are maple or cherry. Here are some photos of the veneer and some solid trim.
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Click here for higher quality, full size image
Forum Responses
(Cabinetmaking Forum)
From contributor K:
Looks like alder frames with red birch panels.
From contributor C:
Looks like Nutone birch cabinets from 40-50 years ago.
From contributor N:
I never heard of Nutone birch, but good call on the red birch.
From contributor J:
Use birch and preseal with a wash coat, then tone (mist spray) color to match. Test, test, test.
From contributor A:
Nutone Manufacturing. I have cut down hundreds if not thousands of the exact same flavor for micro hoods and ref cabinets. It sure looks like "patinaed" birch to me. Stain with yellow for patina and some ngr dye or sap stain should bring it around.
From contributor D:
Sure looks like alder with birch panels.
From the original questioner:
Thanks for all your help, you guys seem to know what you're talking about. These cabinets are at least 20 years old and were stained with Minwax 235 cherry. So I'll start with Birch and go from there.
From contributor B:
These are low cost cabinets, so cherry wouldn't make sense. The birch/red sounds like a good assumption. Or a low grade cherry possibly. I've used a few hundred BF of alder. As I remember it is a softish nondescript open-grain wood - not open grain like oak, but open like a cheap mahogany, rather than a closed grain wood like birch-cherry-maple. Sealing, staining and shading are techniques that will help to match the finish. Over the years I have found it more time consuming to use a cheap wood and spend too much time trying to fake the real wood. I found it easier and less expensive (on a small job) to just use the real thing and not have to go nuts with the finish.
