Dying Wood

[DanD23]

I need to dye some wood to do a custom segmented pen. I was going to try a water based dye, and put it under pressure. Each strip of wood is about 2 inches long, and a little over 1/8" thick. Then I will be gluing up the strips. I had not planned on using resin to stabilize the wood, should I do this? The wood I am using is some clear hard maple.

Any comments, suggestions or experience anyone can share is appreciated.

Dan

 

[jthompson1995]

You might get better penetration if you use vacuum instead of pressure since you are not trying to shrink bubbles. The vacuum should pull the air out of the wood so the dye can penetrate better.

 

[Fred]

I have found that a vacuum gives me better penetration. Try pulling a vacuum and let things sit for a bit, release the vacuum slowly and see how much material is absorbed. Keep pulling/releasing the vacuum until the wood no longer floats at all.

Pre-turning and drilling will speed things along quite a bit. Just drill a tad bid smaller hole and don't turn all the way to a finished size. That will allow you some room to make any necessary adjustments that may develop.

Also, an alcohol or solvent based dye seems to me to be a better route to take as water takes forever to evaporate ... IMHO!

 

[bitshird]

Leather spirit dyes , under vacuum , predrilled and turned close, I just dyed some maple, it worked, but to get a section about 3/8ths thick it took a long pull down and release qabout 5 or 6 times using straight commercial food coloring, and only half that using Feibings spirit leather dye, also color dried more evenly.

 

[rlharding]

Here you go, step by step article:

http://www.joespens.com/

 

[Darley]

I did vacuum and pressurized and din't see any difference, Here is what I done for this pen

I have a large amount of wood from my son’s school,a commemorative tree fell down by strong wind last march, school colour is blue and yellow, I want to try to dye some green wood in blue and yellow, I bought water base blue and yellow dye from my local woodwork shop.

First I drill a 1/4" hole ( size of the mandrel )and turn the blanks, the bushing used is from the top barrel baron kit but I turn around the bushing to use the wide diameter then pass trough the whole a wire to tie them down with sinkers, did my dye in an old pot add my blanks and boiled them for 20 minutes, after when the dye was lukewarm I transfer the lot into the vacuum jar ( or pressure pot )after the process I left the blanks over night, take them out the next morning and let them dry here's some photos

Sorry lots photos for the yellow but is the same procedure