# Transtint Dyes



## Polock2 (Jul 4, 2011)

I bought several of these dyes and used a recipe I saw on the Woodsmith Shop show. What I would like to know, is there a guide to show what to mix with what to obtain different colors, or is it trail and error.

Thanks Jerome


----------



## Howie (May 25, 2010)

Go and buy a color wheel. Sherwin Williams,.Hobby Shops etc have them.


----------



## BillWhite (Jul 23, 2007)

Color wheels won't show the mixtures for Transtint as far as I know. Start with a light mixture and work your way up to the desired color. Keep notes about how many units you added. Just a few drops per addition. That stuff is concentrated. It works well.
What are ya adding the dye to? Stain medium or final finish?
Prepare some test blocks of the same material for your project, and be sure that they are sanded same as the project itself.
Bill


----------



## Sunnygirl (Nov 16, 2011)

Jerome,

I haven't found a guide; that would be great. But I do find that if I have a target color in front of me, I can usually get there. When I try to match a color that's kind of in my head, I miss the target.

Would be interested in your recipe, and I'll bet the others would like to know too.

Amy


----------



## Howie (May 25, 2010)

Color wheels will only show what base to add to each other to attain a color(yellow/blue = green etc) to get anything in between you have to experiment. I usually mix 1/8 teaspoon dye to 2 oz of water and go from there.
I use 1/2 pint jars and label the contents. Like Bill says, a little goes a long way.


----------



## Polock2 (Jul 4, 2011)

Thanks everyone for your feedback. 
Bill, I am using it as stain. 
Sunnygirl, here is my recipe,
I used is 1QT of water, 6 TSP of orange and 4 TSP of reddish brown. It really pops out on curly maple


----------



## Yeorwned (Jun 10, 2011)

Got any pictures Jerome?


----------



## JAAune (Jan 22, 2012)

My method is to mix colors into 8oz. of water and add 1/4 teaspoon increments of dye. Every mixture I make is assigned a short code number and I record that into my notebook. I also label and keep every stain sample that I make for future reference.

By now I've got a couple hundred samples (several wood species) and around 50 mixtures recorded in the notebook. Leftover mixtures are kept in labeled plastic bottles. Color-matching now is just a matter of making a handful of sample boards and applying a few of the pre-mixed colors to see which ones will work.

Also, I seldom attempt to match a color with just the Transtint dye. It's far easier to use the dyes to lay down a base color then work up to the final one with additional layers of color in the form of stains, glazes and toners.


----------

