# Transtint Dye & Popping Grain



## ClammyBallz (Apr 16, 2015)

I picked up a bunch of Transtint dyes and made some samples of each color. My goal is to see how each color would come out when darkened with a stain using Jeff Jewitt's approach. The samples are on red oak.

Here's my color samples.



















Each piece was sanded to 180, wiped down with water, left to dry overnight, sanded the fibers lightly with 220, then dyed. After they dried overnight, I sprayed a thin coat of 1# shellac on them, left them dry, sanded lightlty with 400 and then coated some with watco dark danish oil and some with varithane dark walnut gel stain. Some of them look good, but some of them still have the white specs in the grain. Where did I go wrong? Was the shellac coat too thin to hold the stain/oil?


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## RobS888 (May 7, 2013)

Hmmm, I didn't know shellac could absorb stain. I recently used it on spalted white oak, to prevent it from being absorbed. I applied Seal a cell, then Sanded down and then applied Danish oil. The shellac stayed in the low spots. I think that is what your white specs are from.


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## AandCstyle (Mar 21, 2012)

Clammy, I would guess that the TT didn't get into the openings due to "bridging". Oak is open grain and the surface tension of the water prevents it from getting down into the cells that have been barely sanded into. You might retry the process using DNA as the TT diluent. I haven't tried this, but I think it should work. HTH


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## ClammyBallz (Apr 16, 2015)

Art, I tried the dye with DNA and the finish came out horribly blotchy due the layering. Even then, there was still white streaking.

I made another sample using the waterbase dye and made sections with 0, 1, 2 & 3 coats of shellac, then used the gel stain. The section with no shellac and 1 coat still showed the white streaking. The section with 2 & 3 coats of shellac had no white streaking and the grain had more contrast. One thing I learned is to dilute the dye more when going over it with a gel stain. I'm going to run another sample of color blocks and see how they come out. I'll dilute all my dye mixes and make sure to put enough shellac on this time.


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## AandCstyle (Mar 21, 2012)

Clammy, did you use the DNA on new samples or the originals? The alcohol will redissolve the shellac and make a muddy finish. I have never used a gel stain so I can't offer any suggestions in that regard. You might try posting this on Jeff Jewitt's forum.


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## ClammyBallz (Apr 16, 2015)

I used it on a fresh piece of wood.


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## ClammyBallz (Apr 16, 2015)

Here's 2 & 3 coats.


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## AandCstyle (Mar 21, 2012)

Wow, there is something strange going on with the sample on fresh wood! Was that sprayed? All the more reason to ask Jeff. Sorry that I can't give you any good answers.


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