Figured Maple - Dye?

[Paul Rains]

Anyone had experiance on dying figured maple? I have fairly nice pedastal bowl with some figure in it. I also have some light greyish stain in it from sanding I think, I was thinking how best to finish, and remember in some general woodworking info that dying maple gives depth to figure. suggestions?

[Jeff Nicol]

Paul, There are lots of ways to dye wood. Some guys use Rit cloth dye, food coloring, and commerically available dyes like "TRANSTINT" If you look on any of the big name woodworking store websites you will find what they carry. Rockler, Craft supplies and Woodcraft to name a few. The thing with dyes is that you should sand the turning down to maybe 400 grit then wet it and raise the grain then sand it out again. This way when the dye is applied the grain should not raise. Once the dye is dry the finish can be applied. Some of the wipe on oils and poly's may bleed the dye or not. When I dye wood I use a spray on finish so that hopefully it stays where I put it! I have also dyed lacquer and used a small finish sprayer to put the colored lacquer on that way. The more coats you put on the deeper the finish. Then you can put some clear over the top to give it more protection.

Have fun and give it a try,

Jeff

[Prashun Patel]

Anyone had experiance on dying figured maple? I have fairly nice pedastal bowl with some figure in it. I also have some light greyish stain in it from sanding I think, I was thinking how best to finish, and remember in some general woodworking info that dying maple gives depth to figure. suggestions?

There's a good article on FWW Online by Jeff Jewitt about this:

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/Materials/MaterialsPDF.aspx?id=2577

Basically, you apply thinned dye - like 1/10 the concentration you'd normally use. The curl absorbs more of the dye. Then you sand it all back, which leaves only color in the curl. Then you oil the piece and finally topcoat it.

I tried it and wasn't successful. The curl looked muddy to me. I'm sure it works, but I was bad at it...

IMHO, great results can be achieved without the dye. I sanded up to 220 dry, and wetsanded up to 400g. Then I wiped BLO on the surface a couple of times; letting it soak for about 5 mins each time until the sheen after drying was about even. Then I topcoated with shellac and lacquer. After the shellac, it popped like all get out!

It was my experience that the more you can burnish the surface - and it starts burnishing at 400g, the better the pop. I got great results using a card scraper too instead of paper, but it was hard for me not to get a ripply surface when using a scraper on curly map.

[bob edwards]

Not sure what effect you are trying to achieve but the attached is a small form dyed with food coloring. I buy mine at Michael's in the cake decorating dept. In this application it was applied full strength with a sponge. If you would like a lighter shade thin with alcohol. I would suggest you wet sand several times first to achieve as smooth a finish as possible before applying the dye. I finish the inside with black ink. This piece has several coats if lacquer

[Steve Schlumpf]

Paul - I have had good luck using RIT clothing dye. The only thing I do different is mix it with DNA. That allows the dye to dry faster and also raised the wood grain less than if you were using water. Everyone has brought up a very valid point - and that is to sand the turning down to at least 400 grit before finishing. It will make a huge difference in the end product and the depth of finish you can achieve.

Looking forward to see how it turns out!

[Brian McInturff]

Paul,
Check out my reply under Dyed BAB. It should work with curly maple too.