Preventing dye stain from over-darkening endgrain

let me clarify: I should have written, "like a wash coat of shellac over the end grain, before dye staining".

dave

Bay Area Dave wrote:

Can I control the

One nice thing about water based dyes is you can wet a rag and wipe away as much of the dye as you want. I had an end grain situation where it was dyed darker than the surfaces. I used a damp rag to even it up before top coating...

-Bruce

Ditto ...

Transtint is good and will work with water or alcohol applied directly.

AAMOF, on the left hand letter rack drawer of the Stickley 798 writing table I posted pictures of in abpw a day or so ago, the end grain of the bottom plate that the left hand drawer sits on was actually lighter in color, with stain, than the drawer face was without stain.

I wiped on, then off, just a touch of Transtint mission brown, mixed with alcohol, to get the contrast I was looking for between the base plate end grain and the drawer face.

cool, thanks, Bruce. that sounds much easier than getting shellac on JUST the end grain. I'm waiting (impatiently, of course) for Woodworker's Supply to get a color sample chart to me via snail mail so I can order the (hopefully) correct color.

dave

BruceR wrote:

Always remember thin the stain so it is really diluted, If it is still too light restain with a slightly stronger stain until it is like you want it .check color when the stain is still wet as that is what it will look like the most when the top coat is applied .

The rule, always start with the color too light, it is easy to darken it and a PITA to lighten....mjh

Dunno - I lighten areas with dye by wetting a cloth with the right solvent (water in my case) and pulling off some of the dye.

You can try wetting the endgrain with water first before applying the dye.