A long time ago one of my suppliers suggested I used a "cherry sap stain " before staining. I had a couple of gallons and I used in on cherry and maple and I did not have any bloching what so ever. i had some maple cabinets for my house and I sanded them completely and lightly misted them with the sap stain and then applied a wiping stain and there was no blotching what so ever. I did the same with cherry and I had the most even stain you ever saw. My problem is that the supplier no longer carries the "cherry sap stain" or even knows what it is. I know this is a long shot but maybe one of you guys have heard of this type of product? If I would have thought about it at the time I would have bought all they had!

It was probably just a wood conditioner. It's pretty easy to find, my go to is Circa 1850 conditioner but lots of companies make it. You can also make your own by thinning out clear stain base. For what it's worth, sap staining is a technique where you lightly colour the sapwood (usually with dye stain) to even it out before applying a wiping stain so asking for sap stain might confuse people.

I used to sell Guradsman cherry sap. it was just a dye stain in a cherry color. any die will work, I use mohawk now. i use it to even up the base wood color to even things up since cherry can be all over the place....red or brown. you may want to try gel stains, they seem to work well with cherry and maple just make sure to let them dry.

I have tried ngr stain in cherry, but it did not work nearly as well. This stuff was amazing!
I used it on quite a few projects with great success. A light misting let it dry for 30 minutes and then stain as usual. The stain on maple came out as even as you would ever want. Same results on cherry. Last night I looked at the cabinet I made 14 years ago out of maple and it was the best stain job that anyone could ask for. We all know how we cringe when we stain maple, we finish sand it and it looks great and then apply stain and the blotches show up. I guess trying to find that product from 14 years ago that was so perfect, is like finding that one special girl from high school, you know the one. I just hope she held up and still looks as good as that cabinet ! I know she does in my memories, I guess that is where both will stay!

Okay now back to the future, with the never ending dwindling supply of different types of hardwoods, it seems we have to build everything out of Maple, cherry, oak and walnut. I can't even find 4/4 birch. Tell me your ways to get a smooth consistent stain color out of these species? I have tried wood conditioner, ngr stains, gel stains, waterbase stains. Tinting the sealer and top coats(which really helps until you get a scratch) All of which help but these are "fixes" and not a consistent techinque. Any ideas ????

Try Charles Neil blotch control. Charles passed away a few years ago but you can still buy his blotch control. It works really well. There is a lot of information and videos about it if you do a search for it.

Nicko

The trouble with matching cherry heartwood to sapwood when new, is what happens in 5 years? The color won't match again. Really old cherry starts heading to an incredibly dark maroon. Crisp red color on the sapwood will show like a sore thumb.

RichC is correct, the way the Grand Rapids furniture companies handled these situations was to bleach ( 2 part) these woods white and then color the wood for an even appearence, be it cherry, mahogany, walnut, etc., that way the final color would stay that color for the life of the furnishings.
there answer to keep the blotchyness at bay, was to merely apply a thin coat of nitro lacquer or sealer to the surface (1 part lacquer to 9:parts thinner) then lightly steel wool (4/0) the surface and then apply the dye or oil stain. Depending on the solids of your coating, that may have to be adjusted.!! And in some cases, such as mahogany, a thicker coat applied.15-20% lacquer to thinner ratio. Experiment.