Epoxy with dye - How deep does it stain the surrounding wood

[andrew whicker]

Hi,

I'll do some testing myself, but I'm curious and I'm on the interwebs so thought I would ask:

If you're filling a crack (walnut) with black dye, how deep can I expect it to stain the surrounding wood? Like a few swipes with a hand plane and the wood is back to all natural walnut?

Thanks and cheers,

[Brice Rogers]

I'm by no means an expert....

I have mixed epoxy with testers enamel (from a hobby store). It doesn't seem to change curing time. I think that the enamel is not likely to be soaked in like a dye.

When I do a crack fill, I often used dry coffee grounds (used) mixed with epoxy. It comes out a dark brown. Probably closer to the color of walnut.

Another alternative would be to use fine sawdust (or sanding "flour") from the walnet plus epoxy.

If you don't go wild with the amount of dye you put in the epoxy it probably isn't going to migrate too deeply. But if you put in too much, you risk some migration. There are dyes that are alcohol based and dyes that are dry. I suspect that the dry type would work better.

When I've used a dye by itself, I've had cases where I apply it on the inside of a bowl (I'm a wood turner) and it shows up on the other side of the bowl.

[Jim Morgan]

There was a discussion of this question on here not too long ago - you can search for it. Epoxy accepts a range of colorants, both wet and dry. If you are particularly concerned about the color migrating, you can use a dry pigment such as lampblack or powdered graphite.

[Frederick Skelly]

Andrew, a quick aside. I rubbed on Johnson's paste wax for about 1/2" all around the crack before I filled it. That made it easy to separate the (clear) epoxy from the wood surrounding the crack. The wax kept the epoxy from penetrating the poplar. I think it would do the same with a liquid tint in the epoxy but did not try it. The Johnson's can later be dissolved with solvent or easily planed away. You might test that to see if it works for you.

Fred

[glenn bradley]

I use a few drops of Transtint black dye in the 2-part epoxy to fill voids in walnut. I have noticed no bleed so it is either really inconsequential or only on the surface and is removed as the epoxy is pared or card scraped flush with the surface in my experience.

[andrew whicker]

Awesome! Thanks for the responses. I almost searched last night, but I was being lazy and sent this out right before I went to bed. Oops.

Thanks again!

[Tom M King]

When I want to use black epoxy, I use golf club epoxy, but I keep that for working on golf clubs anyway. Never had any bleeding issue with it ever.