Woodworker's Journal 2011-35-Winter, страница 32

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Pigmented stains strongly affect the open grain but are wiped away from the more dense wood fiber. Dyes soak deeply into open grain but color the fiber of the wood as well.

into the wood but takes off anything sitting on top, resulting in uniform coloration. I like to use nylon abrasive pads, a foam pad or a sponge to apply the dye, because it stays wet longer than a cloth. Flood on plenty of dye and work quickly so it does not dry before you wipe it. If it does dry too fast and leaves lap marks or uneven areas, rewet the entire surface with the dye solution and wipe it again to even it out.

Control the color not by how you apply it, but by how you mix it. If it is too strong, add more

solvent. If it is too weak, aclcl more dye. You can restain as often as you like, changing the color as you go. You can even lighten the dye after it is on the wood by scrubbing with its solvent. For example, lighten a water-soluble dye by scrubbing the wood with clean water and wiping it off with paper towels. In fact, you can remove most, if not all, of the dye by washing the unsealed wood with full-strength laundry bleach. You can use dye to tint a finish. Add a few drops of liquid dye concentrate or mixed alcohol-soluble dye to shellac or lacquer for a translucent tinted coating.

Problems with Dyes

As easy to use as dye stains are, there are some problems to watch out for. The first is splotching, or uneven staining. Some hardwoods, such as cherry, and most softwoods, like pine, contain pockets of resin that can be dissolved by petroleum distillates. Oil-soluble dyes dissolved in such solvents are absorbed more readily into these resinous areas, causing large patches of dark stain where no grain or figure accounts for it. The easiest way to avoid this is to

One of the chief advantages of coloring wood with dye is the virtually unlimited range of achievable colors. You can even restain dyed stock with different successive colors (above) until you reach the desired hue.

use a solvent that will not dissolve the resin. Water-soluble dyes will not cause splotching on these woods because the resin patches are not water-soluble.

Fading is another common problem with dyes. Most dyes fade in strong sunlight, so dyes are not a good choice for exterior staining.

Dyes will also bleed into a finish that has the same solvent as the dye. For example, if you use a waterborne coating over a water-soluble dye, expect some of it to bleed up into the first coat of finish, or to come off on the brush or pad you are using to apply the coating. This is not usually a big deal, but in extreme cases it can cause the stain to become uneven. If you use water-soluble dyes under water-borne coatings, seal the dye first with a thin wash coat of dewaxed shellac. It will seal in the dye and prevent bleeding.

So go ahead and give dyeing a try. A more colorful finishing

future is sure to result. Q

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The pigmented stain on the bottom of each board lodged in the large pores of the oak, but mostly wiped off the denser maple and the denser areas of the oak. The dye stain on the top of each board penetrated deeper, coloring the wood and bringing out the figure in the maple.

Quilted Maple