RE: Stain v dye

[Lew Hodgett]

Some may find this of interest.

Lew

[-MIKE-]

I use dyes a lot and prefer them over stains. They do absorb differently than stain, but each has its own place.

[SonomaProducts.com]

OK, pretty minor tip and major pitch for Tips DVD. Here are some real tips and background for using dye to pop figured grain.

1. visual figure is usually the result of seeing varying grain directions on a single plane of a piece of wood. Curly grain shows edge grain, next to end grain, next to quarter, etc.
2. Different grain direction = different amount of absorption of dye\stain.

1. Basic dying tips follow: Get over fear of raising grain and use water based dye. Douche project with rag of hot water. Let'er dry and lightly sand to remove raised grain hairs.

2. Project should be wet with clear water just before application of dye, it provides much more control of how much color you add and makes dying much more even.

1. For curly Maple: dye entire project with black or very dark dye. After it dries sand off 90% of this dye coat and it will only leave color where end grain portions allowed deeper penetration among the curly.

2. Re-raise grain and scuff off when dry. Then re-wet the whole piece again and apply some much lighter base dye color, (or no color at all but I never found that to look correct).

1. Apply oil and then film finish if you want.

2. These picks show my study of this process using a curly Maple kit from Bartley's, Transtint Black followed by Transtint Vintage Maple, Tung and Lot's o' shellac in sort of a faux french polish approach.

[woodchucker]

Nice work. The legs came out really nice. Just out of curiosity how did you do your legs? Did you carve them, turn them, or draw knife them?