Dumb question, but has the cabinet maker seen this? Can you bring him a door (to be replaced or not) to match off of?

Yes, he has. He is working from a door and two drawer fronts.

I'm not suggesting you go tell the cabinet maker to do it but I'd try a light glaze of blue/white gel stain then re-clear coat.

Matching stained cherry is one of the hardest tasks there is in finishing because cherry darkens with age, and the extent of that darkening varies dramatically among different lots of cherry. One of the many reasons I never put stain on cherry.

That said, your two samples will never end up close to each other. The new on looks like it might have been colored with a dye, while the old has a semi-opaque stain/finish that was popular 20-30 years ago. You need to find someone who can replicate that look.

The striations on your new sample running the length of the board look like sanding marks from a drum or belt sander. You won't get any acceptable finish until those get sanded out completely; I'd use a random orbit sander starting at 80 or 100 up to 180 grit, making sure all sanding marks from the previous grit are gone.

rwiegand: you are right about the age. I think the cabinets were installed around 1986. I guess they were very avant garde at the time!

The RH (old) one looks like a pigmented stain and/or topcoat, which is why it is so opaque. Having 30 years of age on it could have a little to do with it as well. The new work I suspect is a sprayed on stain and toner, primarily with dye as the colorant, which explains why the pores are darker and the finish clearer (not at all opaque).

Casey

Getting back to the origional question "What can I say/suggest to the cabinet maker for a better match?" The answer is "not much",he can either do it or he can't so you may need a new cabinet maker.. I'm confident Mac or Casey can match it to your satisfaction. The question you are asking come's down to can anyone on earth tell your cabinet maker how to perform work he hasn't been trained to do. Charlie Daniels can play the pants off Devil Went Down To Georgia and tell you how but I seriously doubt it will help you play it as well as Charlie. If you insist this is how you want to match cabinets,it's best your cabinet maker come's here to comunicate directly with us.

I might be wrong, but the left side looks more like birch ply than cherry to me.

The one on the right is finished with a toner , color mixed with finish of choice , hence the somewhat opaque nature of the finish . 99% of mass produced kitchen cabinets are finished this way . It skips the step of actual staining and saves a tremendous amount of time , makes everything look uniform and saves the manufacturer money .
The piece on the left has been stained with some sort of stain , notice the pigment in the nooks and crannies of the grain . You don't see this in the "toned" pieces ... My opinion is a tones finish always looks " muddy ".
You could try a Mohawk toner , or any type of aerosol toner to "try" to achieve the existing color . Mohawk makes a transparent as well as an opaque toner . It might require the blending of the two .
Best of luck to you ....
MIke

You had to do that! :-)

Valid point, though. Very often a piece with a cherry finish is not finished cherry, but a cherry type stain on another wood. The very dark cherry finish is usually applied over a wood such as birch. The 'finish' is actually a recipe of stains and a specific color of finish(sometimes called a toner). This is done to allow different varieties of wood to look the same.

Thanks to everyone helping out here.

Yes, it turns out the piece on the left is birch plywood (good call bobismyuncle), and I have no idea why the cabinet maker gave it to the contractor. I've been communicating through the contractor, so there seems to have been some mix up, and the red-stained birch plywood is not actually the finished piece. That piece arrived Friday and is a much better match. More gets here tomorrow.

Sorry for the confusion, and thanks again. You guys certainly know your stuff.

The problem with cherry wood is that the raw wood can vary considerably from light to dark cherry color. I made an end-table once that came out two toned. The lumber for the thick end pieces was dark while the thinner boards were very light. From the lumber supply, I color matched the light boards for the top and color matched the darker end pieces. After the table was assembled, all surfaces got the same finish: Light stain followed by a lacquer finish. The finished piece was two toned, but passed muster.

Its going to be very difficult to color match in pieces. I think that is best to make entire new drawer fronts and the problem will be that the fronts may not match the frame and the rest of the piece.

Can all front surfaces be covered with a veneer?

When buying more cabs to matching existing cherry I had Diamond send me a sample of my existing cherry and it was almost perfect.. I ordered them and are much lighter.. Contractor is staring in 6 days. How much wiill they darken if I put them

in the sun every day for 8 hours.