Woods changing color with age

[ruby50]

Intarsia is an early form of marquetry where pictures are drawn with different colored woods. Here is a famous room in the Met in NYC where all surfaces are flat - mesmerizing to be in

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby16...posted-public/

[Halcyon/Tinker]

That's neat. I just saw my first example of that at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and though there'd be some cool possibilities...

[Dane Johnson]

Nice work with those charts great explanations. There’s a few woods not listed but otherwise very comprehensive

[Henning]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

In this process I came across this handy little reference chart of how woods will change color with age.

Is wood changing colours with age? That´s an interesting phenomena quite new to me. How comes?
What is the physical or perhaps chemical background to this process according to your information, please?

Best regards

[Dane Johnson]

Exposure to Air and UV will change wood naturally. How much is as noted a function of the wood, but also the finish applied, etc...

Some woods more than others. Take hard wood floors or cabinets for example made of Cherry. There is no finish that you can apply that will stop the wood from darkening over time but I believe Light is the more predominant factor.

I’ve been aware of this fir some time.
But it could suggest that the argument of keep it in the case or hanging on the wall has a different approach.

[John Arnold]

What is the physical or perhaps chemical background

Oxidation, maybe. If so, that would be chemical.

[Alan Carruth]

Woods that contain tannin, such as oak, locust and osage orange, will turn darker when exposed to ammonia fumes. Alkali solutions speed up the natural darkening of cherry and some other woods. Lots of different chemical treatments have been used over the years.