Maple plywood

[fshanno]

1/2" Maple ply, book matched veneer.  One half is much lighter after stain.  Shellac and sealers applied before stain make it worse.  Both sides look fine but one is much lighter. 

 

[Kevin Stricker]

Most cabinet grade ply is a only rated with a single good face, the opposite face veneer is for balancing the panel.  Getting two A faces would be a special order.

 

[mouppe]

Most cabinet grade ply is a only rated with a single good face, the opposite face veneer is for balancing the panel.  Getting two A faces would be a special order.

I understood the op to mean two halves of the same face.

 

[Michael Kellough]

1/2" Maple ply, book matched veneer.  One half is much lighter after stain.  Shellac and sealers applied before stain make it worse.  Both sides look fine but one is much lighter. 

It's reflectance. It's because it's book matched. Walk around to the opposite end and the light/dark pair will flip.
The grain is going in opposite directions between one half of a book matched pair and the other half. When the grain is fairly parallel to the panel surface the effect is more subtle and usually the strips that make a book matched pair are narrow enough that in the worst case the effect makes the panel look subtley striped rather than one half is wrong.

 

[fshanno]

1/2" Maple ply, book matched veneer.  One half is much lighter after stain.  Shellac and sealers applied before stain make it worse.  Both sides look fine but one is much lighter. 

It's reflectance. It's because it's book matched. Walk around to the opposite end and the light/dark pair will flip.
The grain is going in opposite directions between one half of a book matched pair and the other half. When the grain is fairly parallel to the panel surface the effect is more subtle and usually the strips that make a book matched pair are narrow enough that in the worst case the effect makes the panel look subtley striped rather than one half is wrong.

Exactly right.  I did find that the effect could be lessened on some panels by rotating 180.  So that determined which side would get the hinges.  Tempest in a teapot because the customer loved it and never once mentioned the effect.  The job is finished now I think this effect actually made the kitchen look better.  It scared me because it was my first job using maple.