# What is the best wood to get a 100% DYE penetration?????



## BobWemm (Feb 15, 2013)

Hi LJ's
I need to dye some wood that is 1/4inch thick and need to get a 100% penetration, that is complete change of colour.
Can anyone recommend a type of wood that is suitable to achieve this, please????
One I have thought about is Birch, but that is not available her in Australia, so I need to know what will work before I get any overseas material.

Hope you can help me.

Bob.


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## BinghamtonEd (Nov 30, 2011)

Why do you need to dye the piece 100% through? I think that might be difficult to achieve, but I've never tried. Seems like if you used an alcohol-soluble dye, it would dry too fast, and if you used a water-soluble dye, the dye would get to a point where it would have trouble absorbing past a certain point.

I'm curious to know what you're using this for.


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## Redoak49 (Dec 15, 2012)

I would try Aspen and use a alcohol based dye. I have had good luck dying it red but never measured the penetration.


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## Jim Jakosh (Nov 24, 2009)

Hi Bob. You might need a vacuum to pull the dye through the fibers 1/4" thick..or maybe submerge it or put the wood in boiling dye. I don't do any dye work…just brainstorming!!
As for the wood,,, i think palm wood might work.

cheers, Jim


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## OggieOglethorpe (Aug 15, 2012)

Pressure treat it.

Not easy to do on a small shop level.


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## BobAnderton (Oct 5, 2010)

I can tell you I've tried to dye thin (like 1/8" thick) veneers with black alcohol based dye by soaking them in the dye in a 1 gallon ziplock bag. Not much of the dye got in very deep. Turned the insides kind of muddy grey. I think that it will be necessary to submerge the pieces in the dye and then pull a good vacuum with a vacuum pump and chamber. Then, when you release the vacuum the solution will be drawn into the wood. This is what they use when they resin impregnate wood to stabilize it.


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## AZWoody (Jan 18, 2015)

If you need a solid color, couldn't you just paint it?


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

Birch would not be a good choice as it is very dense with tight pores. I'm not sure that what you want to do is even possible. The only way to get any penetration at all will be in a vacuum chamber, a softer wood like poplar is what I would try first. How big a piece are we talking here? A small vacuum chamber is easy to build a bigger one will get expensive.


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## Bob Collins (Apr 25, 2008)

Can't help with wood type Bob but I have fond mixing wood dyes with metho get fairly good saturation when brushed on pine and plywood. Maybe if you soaked it for a period of time it would penetrate soft woods. Best of luck mate, what is the project?


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## JAAune (Jan 22, 2012)

Probably a burl of some sort. All that end grain helps absorb the dye. I've had success dying veneer by simply soaking it in alcohol dye for 2 days but I don't know how well that works on thicker wood.


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## BobWemm (Feb 15, 2013)

Thank you for the feed back, it's greatly appreciated.
I am trying to get a good range of coloured wood to use for "Segmenting", which means the colour has to go deep into the wood.
I have no problem with changing the colour after it is shaped and sanded, but that doesn't work when you have to assemble the coloured pieces and then turn to shape.
Size of the pieces is not really a problem, but they would need to be 1 inch (25mm) or more wide so would fit into a vacuum chamber, if I had one. I do have a pressure pot though.
Thanks again for your input.

Bob


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## JAAune (Jan 22, 2012)

Just be very careful to do research before putting flammable materials under pressure. I don't know what the safe limitations are. However, I do know that people have blown up pressurized air tanks when they put oil inside them. Something to do with lowering the flash point and the heat caused by the pressurizing process.


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## Lazyman (Aug 8, 2014)

I was curious about how to make something similar to spectraply so did a search and found a couple of links that might be of interest:
http://www.joewoodworker.com/veneering/vacuum-infusing-chamber.htm
http://www.woodtalkonline.com/topic/6130-100-saturation-of-lumber/


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## Carloz (Oct 12, 2016)

Since you did not specify the application I would suggest balsa.


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## BobWemm (Feb 15, 2013)

Lazyman, Thank you for that info. Some good information in those links.
It looks like I will have to build a Vacuum chamber.

Thanks to you all for your help.

Bob.


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## Lazyman (Aug 8, 2014)

If you do try this, let us know how it works (might make a good blog entry). I have toyed with the idea of trying to make my own spectraply.


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## doubleDD (Oct 21, 2012)

This is interesting and I've been following this. Something that could benefit me too. Sounds like there's no easy way to do it. Let us know if you go with the vacuum.


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## Bob Collins (Apr 25, 2008)

Bob, just found Vacuum Pumps for dyeing wood on www.ConestogaWorks.com but would be expensive to ship out here. There is also a PDF printout that might be helpful. Same firm I board the Lichtenberg Wood Burner from.


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## BobWemm (Feb 15, 2013)

Bob,
Thanks for that, I did check them out when I was looking at your burning bits,

Bob


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## JDsneaky (Feb 9, 2021)

Just my Two cents, since this thread is pretty outdated. You may want to try painter's pigment in different solutions as it is much finer than most wood dye or epoxy pigment. A vacuum system is definitely going to speed things up by many factors. At the end of the day dye is still a solid pigment suspended into a solution so you are ultimately passing a solid through a slightly pourous solid. I wonder if an oil based prestain was vacuum penetrated first and then is a dye with a low viscosity oil based pigment solution would help the transfer of the pigment through the grain. I think this could work great with any wood with large radial pores.


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## tvrgeek (Nov 19, 2013)

Balsa?


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## BobWemm (Feb 15, 2013)

Hi JD


> Just my Two cents, since this thread is pretty outdated. You may want to try painter s pigment in different solutions as it is much finer than most wood dye or epoxy pigment. A vacuum system is definitely going to speed things up by many factors. At the end of the day dye is still a solid pigment suspended into a solution so you are ultimately passing a solid through a slightly pourous solid. I wonder if an oil based prestain was vacuum penetrated first and then is a dye with a low viscosity oil based pigment solution would help the transfer of the pigment through the grain. I think this could work great with any wood with large radial pores.
> 
> - JDsneaky





> Balsa?
> 
> - tvrgeek


Hi Guys,

Thanks for that info.

Bob.


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## DavePolaschek (Oct 21, 2016)

I've been experimenting with pigments used in cosmetics as powder for kohlrosing, and it turns out most of them are oil soluble too (so putting BLO over them smears some amount out). And they're too fine to work great for kohlrosing as they'll get into the grain, even of a fine-grained wood like birch. I'm almost to the point of having enough to write a blog on the subject. Just have to try the last few colors I bought to see if there's any surprises there.

But if you're looking to dye wood brought and through, my experience is that spalted wood was best for getting color all the way through, and even that would still have pockets of solidity where you wouldn't get color.


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## BobWemm (Feb 15, 2013)

> I've been experimenting with pigments used in cosmetics as powder for kohlrosing, and it turns out most of them are oil soluble too (so putting BLO over them smears some amount out). And they're too fine to work great for kohlrosing as they'll get into the grain, even of a fine-grained wood like birch. I'm almost to the point of having enough to write a blog on the subject. Just have to try the last few colors I bought to see if there's any surprises there.
> 
> But if you're looking to dye wood brought and through, my experience is that spalted wood was best for getting color all the way through, and even that would still have pockets of solidity where you wouldn't get color.
> 
> - Dave Polaschek


Thank you Dave,
I did have a little success with some Queensland Walnut but I also added Tea leaves and Tannin to the mixture, then soaked 1/4 inch strips inside poly pipe for about a month. The colour was fairly dark but not black like I wanted, and like you said, there were small patches that didn't colour at all.
I have to admit that I haven't tried again.

Thanks,
Bob


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