To Color or Not to Color....Opinions solicited

[Chip Sutherland]

Okay...this is a participation opportunity. I am working on this piece of silver maple. This is part of the trunk of a tree that came down in a micro-burst...the actual tornado dropped about a mile away. This piece is 8"w x 8" h about 5 yrs old and dry. No figure has been found in this piece yet just staining and some spalting.

Dilemma - whether to finish this with mineral oil or dye it. If dyed, what dye options? IMO, historically, blue dye on this heartwood is kinda ugly. I have the three primary colors and black so I can mix different shades.

The wood in these pictures was wetted with DNA to show what the piece really looks like on one side and the opposing side. There is a large spot of heartwood. You can still see the growth rings thru the gray staining. I have cut a line at the top for the bowl rim, the wood above (if you turn your head) the line will be removed; it is not stable enough to keep

Style - I started out with a ceremonial bowl concept but won't know until I turn it around and start playing with the rim thickness. It's kinda of large/tall for ceremonial bowl but whatever. It has a nice shape already for a calabash-style bowl but I don't recall the Hawaiians coloring their bowls.

259151259152

For today, I will complete sanding the outside, turn it around and start to hollow it out. Let's see how many folks are wood purists and how many are colorists......:cool:

REPLY WITH YOUR OPINION.

[Brian Kent]

The current colors are beautiful. I wonder if dye would take away from the yellow to gray contrast. I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Chip - I use dye a lot but would not even consider it with this wood! The natural beauty of this piece would be enhanced with a light oil finish - like Antique Oil or an oil-based poly - but I would not use mineral oil for it unless you plan on making it a utilitarian bowl. Then again, if utilitarian is the desired purpose, then I would use Mahoney's boiled Walnut Oil because you will want a finish that will dry and seal the wood and mineral oil never dries.

Good luck!

[David DeCristoforo]

What Steve said. Put the dye down and back away from the lathe...

[Dennis Nagle]

Too good looking as is to dye it.

[Chip Sutherland]

I'm thinking fuschia/magenta might be a nice color. I'm a big Chris Pytlik fan. :D

259192 :eek: OR Purple 259193 :cool:

[Marvin Hasenak]

I think nature has "dyed" it, leave perfection alone.

[Brian Finney]

[QUOTE=Chip Sutherland;2093185]I'm thinking fuschia/magenta might be a nice color. I'm a big Chris Pytlik fan. :D

Chip,

It's good to get the colour out of your system by thinking about it. It's now time to move on :)

Brian

[Peter Blair]

ChiP I too love coloured wood but gotta admit I sometimes should leave mother nature alone and this time I think you should too.
How about a hollow form, no, you stuck on a bowl then I agree with Steve as far as finish goes.
Just my 2 bit's worth.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I must agree. Mother nature has given you some beautiful wood and I would not even consider putting dye on that piece.

[robert baccus]

It,s very pretty natural for sure. Sometimes spalting looks good with a real thin "shading" of dark dye in laq. Just for giggles try it on a piece of scrap. Just a very small amount of dark dye in some fairly thin laq. and it hides nothing--sorta like a bikini.

[Roger Chandler]

Dye.......on this? No way! You have too good a palette now and you will do better with the Walnut oil finish that Steve was referring to..........you won't regret not dying it, but likely will if you do.......Just my humble, but experienced opinion! ;)

[Bob Bergstrom]

I dye a lot also and would no way touch this piece with dye. Listen to the crowd, it will be geogous.

[jwjerry w kowalski]

Too s triking to dye, no way would I try to improve on mother nature's brush.

[Harvey M. Taylor]

I heartily concur with all the anti-dye posts. wish we had that kind of wood here in Tx. All we have is that lovely mesquite. Max

[Chip Sutherland]

Harvey....this is Texas wood. It came from a neighbor in Plano. The maple was planted back in 1998...came down in 2008. They cut it into chunks for city pickup. My wife spotted it in the alley while looking at the damage on our street from the downdraft/microburst of a tornado. I picked the wood up in the alley and sealed it with Anchorseal and let it sit in my garage. About a year later, I started cutting some of it up. It spalted all by itself.

So drive around after some tornadoes this year around Ft Worth. You might get lucky. Take your chainsaw it's amazing how many folks need just a few things cleared.