[jrblasde]

I had a whale of a time blending the color of the new veneer with the older wood, but I think I am finally satisfied. I started doing my research after Arran mentioned the wood dye. We have a store here in Tulsa called Wood Craft, and I discovered that they sell dyes. I got two colors, an auburn (for some orange) and a deep maple (to add some yellow). I bought the kind of dye in a concentrated dropper bottle much like a food coloring squeeze bottle, to be diluted with water or denatured alcohol. I mixed a bit of each into water and treated the new veneer. At this point the wood was much too yellow orange, but it all started coming together when I then used the regular wood stain on top. I used a bit of cherry stain, cut with mineral spirits and then a bit of walnut gel stain. The new and old wood was getting very close, but still the new lacked a bit of red. I was able to blend it all together with some cherry toner. Here’s the final result.

   

   

   

It’s definitely a darker tone than this radio came to me, but I’m thinking it was faded. The junker radio I got over west of Tulsa in Sand Springs had a much richer tone. I sought to match that, and I think I did okay! Here’s a photo comparing against one of the undamaged side panels on the junker.