Dyes and Maple

Are you mixing your dye with a de-waxed shellac or what?

Check out the Woodwhisperer site for the video on popping the grain on his maple pencil holder.

Dalec

I have tried both water and alcohol and both are a bit blotchy.

Try using two coats. The wood will only soak up so much dye. Sand after the first coat to get rid of the raised grain. Then a light sanding when done. If any sections are darker then you can sand them a little extra.

The finish will tend to even out any blotchiness remaining.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

The rule is; stains enhance grain – dyes subdue grain. The reason being that with stains, the ground pigment will lodge in the surface grain while dyes are equal opportunity colorants and favor neither soft nor hard grain, ring porous or whatever, everything gets colored [theoretically].

To add to GaryK’s advice, you could also do a wash coat of 2# cut shellac [Zinsser’s SealCoat] before dyeing. Also, dyes won’t help with splotches unless you “cut back” on it with fine sandpaper then layer on more/different color or tinted finish. A good example of this is in a recent article in FWW. Very effective technique.

I use Lockwood’s and TransTint too and they’re great products. I aooly them like Jeff Jewitt does and hose the work with a plant spritzer. If you’ve never dyed a project before, you’re in for an epiphany. I won’t ever be without my dyes now. If there’s too much or too little it’s a simple matter of hosing some more or wet toweling some off to get what you’re after. Remove the nibs and seal with a wash coat of shellac [highly recommended] or just go straight to finish.

Also, bear in mind what sheen you want to end up with as a soft or low luster sheen can hide a multitude of sins.

always,
J.C.

-- "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein

If you think the stain coluor is too strong you can wipe over with a cloth wet with solvent compatible to the stain. If you do this just after the stain has penetrated it will lighten the effect considerably and even out the blotchy bits.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Transtint water soluable dye over soft maple was exactly what I used on this project, to give you an idea what it looks like:

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/7296

(I used dark mission brown).

-- -- Kevin in Mentor, Ohio

heres some samples i made useing rit dyes

-- if you aint the lead dog the scenery never changes

These are some awesome photos.

Thanks all, I have done some test pieces with all your advice and I think I have some of the issues under control. Now i just have to get my wife ti choose a color haha.

I am getting ready to finish a Maple project and want a reddish brown look that makes the grain pop. I started testing with 3 colors of water soluble aniline dyes, brown, dark brown, and black and several combinations there of that did not meet my approval. Then I tried Watco Walnut Danish Oil not what I wanted on this project. Finally I tried Varathane Red Mahogany Wood Stain and Bingo that’s what I wanted the grain really jumped at you. The effect is much like the finish on Safetyboy’s in the above photo and Mrtrim’s 4th from the bottom on the right. I’ll try to post pix when I’m done the project is on hold now because my 12,000 BTU air conditioner needs a hole cut in the wall and installed…..Summer has arrived in the Mid-West.
And thanks mrtrim for the tip on Rit Dyes!!!!

-- Only the Shadow knows....................