Frederick Skelly
08-30-2015, 8:26 PM
A couple weeks ago I asked how to do this. In addition to several other helpful suggestions, George Wilson suggested soaking in white vinegar prior to soaking in dye. I just finished the experiment and it seems to have worked. Here's what I did:
1. Get a scrap of BORG "whitewood" that is 3/4" thick and 12" long.
2. Use the tablesaw (gasp!) to cut very thin strips from that whitewood. Mine were 0.040 thick x 3/4" x 12" long.
3. Put several ounces of white vinegar in a ziploc-type (sealable) plastic bag
4. Place 2 whitewood strips in the bag with vinegar, seal bag. Make sure the vinegar covers all of the wood strips.
5. Leave bag in sun or warm garage for 4 days. Check daily to ensure the wood is covered in vinegar.
6. Empty vinegar, dry the bag fully.
7. Mix transtint mahogany with few ounces of distilled water - I made about a 4 oz batch, very dark.
8. Place the wood strips, which must still be very moist with vinegar, into the plastic bag and add the dye.
9. Seal ziploc bag and place in sun or warm garage for 5 days. Make sure the dye completely covers the wood strips in the bag. Check it every day to make certain the wood is fully immersed. Try to avoid overlapping the pieces of wood.
10. After the 5 days, remove wood strips and let them dry a couple days in sun or warm garage.
After it dried, I cut the wood strips into stringing that is 0.040 thick and 1/16" wide. To my eyes, the stringing was plenty dark enough all the way through to use as intended.
I have lots of work to do to "upsize" from dyeing only 2 wood strips to dyeing several more at one time. But the vinegar worked! (Thank you George!) I don't know yet whether the acidic vinegar mixed with the dye will have any negative result on the topcoat of finish. That's still something I need to test. But my prototype process worked.
I hope this helps someone else - you folks always help me.
More as I learn it.
Fred
1. Get a scrap of BORG "whitewood" that is 3/4" thick and 12" long.
2. Use the tablesaw (gasp!) to cut very thin strips from that whitewood. Mine were 0.040 thick x 3/4" x 12" long.
3. Put several ounces of white vinegar in a ziploc-type (sealable) plastic bag
4. Place 2 whitewood strips in the bag with vinegar, seal bag. Make sure the vinegar covers all of the wood strips.
5. Leave bag in sun or warm garage for 4 days. Check daily to ensure the wood is covered in vinegar.
6. Empty vinegar, dry the bag fully.
7. Mix transtint mahogany with few ounces of distilled water - I made about a 4 oz batch, very dark.
8. Place the wood strips, which must still be very moist with vinegar, into the plastic bag and add the dye.
9. Seal ziploc bag and place in sun or warm garage for 5 days. Make sure the dye completely covers the wood strips in the bag. Check it every day to make certain the wood is fully immersed. Try to avoid overlapping the pieces of wood.
10. After the 5 days, remove wood strips and let them dry a couple days in sun or warm garage.
After it dried, I cut the wood strips into stringing that is 0.040 thick and 1/16" wide. To my eyes, the stringing was plenty dark enough all the way through to use as intended.
I have lots of work to do to "upsize" from dyeing only 2 wood strips to dyeing several more at one time. But the vinegar worked! (Thank you George!) I don't know yet whether the acidic vinegar mixed with the dye will have any negative result on the topcoat of finish. That's still something I need to test. But my prototype process worked.
I hope this helps someone else - you folks always help me.
More as I learn it.
Fred