I'm dying!!

Jim Burr

Member
Messages
3,633
Location
Reno, Nv
I have a fair amount of Curly Maple and wanted to get some take on what everyone (or those who do) uses for dye and application. CS has some stuff in the new catalog, but I hear rumblings of some other types floating around? Going to start with pens and move on from there. Method is real important too!;)
 
The last maple I died I used leather dye on it. Just wiped it on and rubbed it dry. Came out looking real nice :thumb:
 
Another vote for Transtint and Transfast. Their colors are supposedly less likely to fade than most other dyes, and they're easy to mix to get custom shades. You can also control how dark or light they are by varying the concentration of the the mix and how much you apply.

Most of my experience is with Transtint. It's a liquid concentrate that you add to either DNA or water to make your dye. If you use an alcohol base, it dries almost instantly. With a water base, you have a bit more time to rub it in and avoid splotches. I typically use an alcohol base, but I usually spray the dye instead of wipe it on. When I'm spraying a turned piece like a bowl of hollow form, I usually mix an ounce of dye at a time...one ounce of DNA with 10 to 15 or so drops of Transtint. I spray lightly, since it's a lot easier to add more to darken it than it is to remove some to lighten it. ;)

Speaking of removing some to lighten it, you can get some great effects with curly maple by dying with the color of your choice, then sanding the piece to remove just the dye on the surface, leaving dye in the pores of the grain. It can really accentuate the curl. Joe Landon has done some nice stuff using this process and layering several colors on top of each other. Here's a little vase I did a while back with black, orange and yellow dye, sanding between each layer except the last.

Glass Insert Vases 0909 05 - 800.jpg
 
I just recently started experimenting w/ Fiebing's alcohol-based leather dye. Worked well on the two pieces done so far. One was ebonized (USMC Black). The other yellow followed by red.

Tandy Leather has this dye at half price through 6/30. It's like $3 for 4 oz.
 
Vaughn-

I love the depth and choices of colors you used. To my eye it's perfect. I'm assuming you used the colors in the order you listed??

Regards,
 
Vaughn-

I love the depth and choices of colors you used. To my eye it's perfect. I'm assuming you used the colors in the order you listed??

Regards,

Thanks, Lee. And you're correct...the colors are in order of application. One trick I picked up from reading about Joe Landon's work is that he starts with the darkest colors and works backwards to the lightest, sanding in between colors. Nice curly maple works very well, but I've not had as good of luck with other species like plain sycamore.

Here's one that was done with the same colors, but it was sycamore and had a totally different outcome. Not horrible, but not as nice as the maple...

Glass Insert Vases 0909 02 - 800.jpg
 
The pen turning forums have a lot of discussion on this subject. But, much has already been touched on here. Basically, whatever works for you. Felt tip markers are very popular. I have only dyed once. Discarded and bought a colored blank to suit the purpose. :rolleyes:
 
Top