Transtint w/ Water, Alcohol, or Shellac?

[Keith Starosta]

I'm getting ready to start the initial finishing of a blanket chest made from quarter-sawn and rift-sawn white oak. I used a piece of scrap to test out some coloring using a Transtint dye. For this test piece, I mixed the Transtint with distilled water. After applying the dye, I was not surprised to see raised grain. This led me to start thinking about what would be the best option for this white oak, when mixing the dye. I have a feeling that the answer is going to be "personal preference", but is using water over alcohol over shellac better? Is there one best way to do it?

Any opinions would be really appreciated!

- Keith

[Jon Crowley]

You guessed correctly - personal preference. No way is better, just different. :)

Water -
dries slower, making it easier to spread evenly
raises grain
comes out of the faucet. :) although many use distilled water on lighter colors.

alcohol -
dries more quickly, hard to apply by hand. Generally used in a spray setup.
does not raise grain, or raises very little.

shellac -
Used in this way, it's more of a toner. Rather than coloring the wood itself, you're putting down a translucent layer of color. This is good because you can somewhat even out a blotchy finish, change the color of something already sealed, etc. Bad because it will obscure the grain somewhat... kinda like looking at the wood through a tinted window.

It all depends on what works best for your specific scenario...

[Steve Kohn]

It was recommended to me to raise the grain with water first, sand lightly, and then use the water based dye. I did this, followed with dewaxed shellac, another light sanding, and then water based poly.

The finish, on ash, exceeded my expectations. I am doing the same process with my granddaughters crib now.

[Jim Becker]

What Jon said....

[Steve Schoene]

Personally, I think using a toned finish, unless you are adept at spraying, is very challenging except for very light tints. More than just a little color and you approach polyshades difficulties.

So if using the toned finish is out, then TransTint is the wrong dye. Why, because it dissolves in alcohol, water, and lacquer thinner and pure oils. This means that many finishes you put over TransTint used as a dye, not a toner, can redissolve the dye and lift it. You can do this OK if the top coats are sprayed (a dry coat first, followed by full coats afterwards) be can cause problems when you use a brush or wiping technique.

So for use as a pure dye, I'd recommend a powdered dye that dissolves only in one solvent. Water soluble is by far the easiest to use because of the time you have to work. Sure it raises the grain, but that's not a hugh deal. You can pre-raise grain by wetting with distilled water and Lightly sanding off the raised grain. The dye may still raise grain but it will be much less. Or you can just apply the dye, apply the first coat of your top coat, thinning it so it dries quickly and sands easily, and then sand off the raised grain after it has been stiffened by the finish.

As far as using a water soluble dye by hand, it should be applied liberally so that it is the concentration of the dye that determines how intense the color is, not how much you apply. Start from the bottom and work up, so any drips occur on still wet dye, giving you plenty of time to wipe them.

[Clifford Mescher]

I have used the powder with water and the grain raising doesn't hinder my top coat wiping varnish. Feels smooth and can not see it. Clifford