Staining Pens?

[Ozzie]

While I have turned about 50 pens of assorted woods that I give away as gifts I was wondering. Does anyone apply stains to some of the pens? The reason I ask is that I have some Pear and Apple wood that I kept when I took them down. The wood is not grained or spalted at all and is a light yellow/white color. I felt that make pens from it would not have a distinctive pattern to it and would look rather bland with just a lacquer or clear coat to it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[pastorbill1952]

There is athread on dyeing wood and also an article on homepage about spirit stains. The box elder that I have seen dyed has a very distinctive look. I have only dyed one pen but it turned out almost neon and I really didn't like it.

 

[rtparso]

I made a batch of pens out of apple last year and some of them had dakened streaks after sanding. I think that it got hot and changed color. Why others didnot I don't know. I made about 20 and I would gues that about 25% changed color noticably. I have thought about using a heat source to worm the wood but I have not tried it yet. I personaly like the idea that the wood is it's nateral color. That said some of the colored work I have seen on this site is great.

 

[Daniel]

I've seen postes about dying with spirit stains, analyn (Spelling?) dyes, even shoe polish or dyes. quite a while back I heard someone mention trying to use regular fabric dyes. my impression is that the Analyn dyes are the best. Patricia Lawson did some work with these and had alot of good info about it. I'm not sure that dying is going to help a piece unles it has an interesting grain that dye will help bring out.

 

[GregD]

I've used golden oak stain on a couple of my pens. Mostly to bring out the grain pattern. It did what I wanted it too but I really wasn't impressed with the way the wood took the stain.

 

[ryannmphs]

I turned a letter openers out of maple and "stained" it using a blue sharpie. I think the there is a pic of it in my photo album. That is the extent of my staining.

Ryan

 

[Old Griz]

This is just my opinion for what it is worth...
I have played with some of the various stuff out there... and this is what I have found from my own experiences... now remember I am no expert...

If you are looking for the bright colors of the rainbow, I suggest either the Chestnut or Artisan Analine Dyes sold by CSU.. they are alcohol based and do not raise the grain.. also since they are alcohol based you can dilute them a bit to get a more translucent color wash... I have also found that using them on real curly or burled woods gives the best results.. since these woods absorb dyes at different rated between the burl/curl and the normal wood, buffing them with 0000 steel wool after the dye has dried changes the character of the dye.. making parts of it light and the other parts stay dark... very nice contrasts...
If you are looking to enhance the color of your blanks with natural wood colors, I recommend the TransTint brand of dyes... available from just about all the major suppliers online... again an analine dye that can be made more translucent by thinning with alcohol...

<b>NOW HERE IS THE BIGGIE.... NO WHERE... I MEAN NO WHERE...</b> did you see me mention the term stain.... Stains are made up of ground up pigments suspended in a carrier medium... they need to be shaken or mixed before use to reconstitute the solution... they also are more of a surface coloring agent that also fills the pores of open pored woods like walnut, oak, etc. Stains will look more muddy than dyes.. and tend not to be as light fast as dyes... they also take longer to dry because the pigments need to dry not just the carrier...

Dyes are in total solution and soak into the wood, not on the surface, they dry quicker (if alcohol based) and are more light fast and tend to be brighter and more accurate in color.. Dyes can also be mixed to obtain new colors since there are no pigments to worry about... dyes can be used on top of each other to alter the appearance of the bottom coat... if you try this with a stain it does not work..
Dyes are also available in a water base, but I really don't like them because they raise the grain and take longer to dry.. not bad if you are doing flat work.. but a real PIA for a pen turner...

I am also experimenting with some of the more light fast artist inks to see what they can do... as I get a better experiment base, I will post it here along with product or type recommendations.. I just picked up some translucent acrylic artists ink... supposed to be light fast and quick drying... I am going to play with it a bit today.. got red, yellow and blue...

These are strictly my opinions and what has worked for me.. take it for what it is worth.... the best thing I can recommend is that you experiment with what you think will work for you... but remember, success on one piece of wood does not make a valid experiment.. each species will react differently to the materials you will use..
For instance, we all have a problem keeping purpleheart 'purple" I found that a diluted red analine wipe will keep it looking good even months later when other pens have started to turn.. YA GOTTA EXPERIMENT... LOL

 

[tipusnr]

I have made pens from Peach and, while not the most grained or variated, they are nice looking pens and the people who got them bought them because they were "peach".

I'm going to try coloring woods because I want to. Any wood can be used as there will be someone out there who wants it. The question is twofold - do you like producing the pen and how long are you willing to hold onto it looking for the right owner.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Old Griz, that is very useful information. But I am going to pick a nit with what you said. Pro'bly just semantics. Use of the words 'dye' and/or 'stain' is a matter of who is saying it or using the product. One of my avocations is old style muzzle loading rifles. Builders of better rifles commonly use an acid based 'stain' to achieve the look they want with maple stocks and many other woods. The acid based products react differently on the various parts of the figured grain and enhance the natural beauty. The acid based stains also have the advantage that they can be diluted and reapplied until exactly the degree of coloration desired is achieved. Very hardly noticable to almost black.

 

[Old Griz]

Frank, what you say is true of the woodworking world in general... however, if you read any of the major books on finishing today they take a very hard stand on what is a stain and what is a dye...
I know exactly what you are talking about with acid 'dyes'..LOL.. built two nice pieces in my day when I did French and Indian... both .54 Jaeger Rifles... both stolen... after that I got out of it...
But the industry as a whole is trying to make the difference between the two a solid difference... Back in the good old days descriptions were mixed and variable... but as there are more and more products produced in different ways today, the professionals (of which I AM NOT one), have set up a naming system to divide them...

 

[DCBluesman]

Here's a great article on stains/dyes with a bunch of tips. I don't do a lot of staining/dyeing, but this is still a handy bookmark. www.targetcoatings.com/products/dyes/trans_tech.html

 

[jdavis]

We stain some woods with Minwax oil stain to obtain the color we are after on wood ( pens, bowls or the large furniture). We do not dye wood. We stain . Minwax web site has good info on staining wood.

 

[Daniel]

I posted a message in the suggestion forum that this conversation. and certainly this link would be a great example of. put this link in a catagory about dying wood. than let anyone interested in trying it decide for themsleves ehat they want to try doing. of course sharing your experiences with all of it is still a great idea. but I tend to see conversation like this come up. one or two really informative links are shared and then after a while the whole thread links and all are forgotten or lost. Six months later the whole thing will start again.
Tom has done a god job of consolidating the info in that really long artical. I woudl like to see toms post put somewhere. for those that jsut want or need a quick reference. the post would do. for those that really want to know this information. the link could be there for them to really do some studying. But for some the distinction between Dying and Staining could very well be important. Certainly in the creating arena. I know I learned something here. and one day I could see myself having an idea that this info would be relative to. But I also will not necessarily remember if it was dye or stain that soaks in. being able to find this to refresh would be nice.

 

[JimGo]

Daniel, I agree. Can we get it copied/moved to the Tips and Tricks FAQ section?

 

[Ozzie]

Wow!! Thanks for all the quick responses. Guess I'll experiment with some scrap pieces and see how they look. Will have to wait for the Pear stock to dry tho. The limbs were only cut two weeks ago. Sure is neat turning green stock.

 

[GregD]

Ozzie,
I just wanted to let you know that I stained a piece of ash, mohogany red. It came out really nice. I hope to get some pictures posted soon. I just used oil based stain and let it sit a few minutes then wiped away the excess.Allow the stain to dry properly before putting on your finish.

 

[Daniel]

Jim, I'm not a moderator for this forum so i don't have all those neat buttons here. It could simply be copied and pasted there as a now topic.
I saved it all in a word file just in case we want to do something with it later. I'll try and catch as many as I can but I am far from seeing every comversation here any more. so if any of you see anything you think should be preserved. drop me an e-mail with a link to the thread. Ican at least be saving word files on some of this.

 

[JimGo]

Thanks Daniel, that's a good idea.

 

[Gary]

Originally posted by Daniel
<br />Jim, I'm not a moderator for this forum so i don't have all those neat buttons here. It could simply be copied and pasted there as a now topic.
I saved it all in a word file just in case we want to do something with it later. I'll try and catch as many as I can but I am far from seeing every comversation here any more. so if any of you see anything you think should be preserved. drop me an e-mail with a link to the thread. Ican at least be saving word files on some of this.

Why does it say Moderator under your name?

 

[Daniel]

Gary,
I am the moderator of some of the other forums, but not all. if you look at one of the columns from the forum list page you will see the names of the moderators for each forum.