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Hi to all and happy new year
I just finished the binding on my newbuild dreadnought and I thought I would try out binding with Holly for a change but I didn't have enough to cover front and back
So, I went with Maple on the top and then Holly on the back
Now I see my problem as the Holly is much whiter than the maple when its all scraped and sanded.

So, what would you experts suggest I use when finishing to get both woods looking reasonably similar in color ?
I plan to french polish the entire guitar with shellac but I may need a stain or whatever to darken the holly ?
I will post pics later but any advise would be much appreciated
Cheers everyone
Rusty

If you have any scrap you can experiment with stains or dies to find a combo that gets close to a match. I would imagine it would be a very dilute mix. This may also work for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tViTWUL8Was

The permanganate is the darkener.

Pic of binding

I wonder how they would look with just amber shellac to provide a common color.

Another thought. You could use a little acetone to bleed the color out of the IRW onto the Holly to darken it some as well. I do that to bring out the "curly" in my curly maple bindings.

Decide which you prefer, holly or maple.
Rout out the loser and replace with the winner.