Water Based Dye

[Steve Roxberg]

My first attempt at using a water based dye. I purchased the dye and it came in a one ounce bottle. It says to mix one to two ounces with a quart of water.

I am only going to dye a small turned bowl. How do I properly measure quanties of dye at least than on ounce? Or since I'm only staining a small piece just mix some up and quit worrying about it.

Should I use tap water, or distilled water?

Any other tips for a newbie at this?

[Bob Lasley]

Steve,

I usually mix up a quart at a time according to the directions. I then try the dye on a scrap piece of material. If it is too dark, I pour some of my mix into another container and add water until I get the shade I want. Mark your containers so you know what is what. I prefer quart fruit jars.

Distilled water is probably best, though I have used tap water.

One other point. Raise the grain of your wood before applying dye. Take a fairly damp sponge and wipe down the wood. Let it dry and then lightly sand until smooth with your final grit sandpaper. This will keep the wood from becoming fuzzy when you apply the dye.

Another note. The color will be closest to the finished look right after you apply the dye while it is still wet. It often looks chalky after it dries. Your topcoat will bring it back to the wet look.

Good luck,
Bob

[Steve Roxberg]

Thanks, what is the shelf life it I do mix up a quart and keep it sealed in a Ball Jar?

[Steve Schoene]

Shelf life, if kept in a darkish place and in glass not metal "should" be very long--more like years than months. Thats been my experience, but others sometimes report the dye "growing stuff" or otherwise going bad, but thats rare I think.

[Jim DeLaney]

I've got some Behlen's Medium Walnut mixed up and stored in a laboratory plastic bottle.

It's been mixed for nearly five years and still works just fine - I used a little bit of it about a week ago...

[Dave Anderson NH]

I try to make all of my finished surfaces hand planed. This means that if you flood the dye on the grain will either raise only minimally or not at all. This eliminates the wetting with water to raise the grainand then sanding before applying the dye. It's a considerabletime savings, a day at least.

The other option is to sand, apply the dye, oil if you are going to, and then use a spit coat of shellac as a sealer. After sealing with the shellac, you can sand off any fuzz that has raised thru the shellac. This has also saved you the task of preraising the grain and the subsequent sanding before dyeing.

Remember to flood the dye on heavily after doing your test piece for color intensity. Water based dyes won't show any lap marks after they dry. Also make sure you put a topcoat on your test piece to see what the final effect will look like. After the dye dries the surface of the wood will look dull and you won't like the uncompleted look. You can cheat and just look at the wet wood for an idea of the color, but it still won't be exactly like the final color after the top coats have been applied.

[Steve Roxberg]

Wow, great responses. I love curly and figured wood and am going to experiment with dye, followed by BLO, by Shellac.

I've got the woodworking part down, the cutting, measuring twice, square boards, but the really nice finishes have been tough to do.

Thanks

[Bob Lasley]

Steve,

I suggest you buy a book or two or three by some of the finishing gurus. Bob Flexner, Jeff Jewitt or Michael Dresdner to name three. It will help you immensely with your finishing. I have Flexner's book "Understanding Wood Finishing" and it really opened my eyes and made finishing much simpler.

Good luck,
Bob

[Greg Wandless]

Steve,

You can get a scale to measure your dye to mix smaller quantities. A troy ounce is about 31 grams so to make half just weigh out about 15 grams and use half the water. You can also split the volume of power in half by pouring onto a piece of paper and cutting it half. You will get more reproducable results if weigh the powder and keep a note of how much you used.

I always use distilled water when I mix my dyes. I had some water based dye around for a couple of years with no apparent degradeing.

Good luck.

Greg