Replies

1. 
   AlanTurner | May 20, 2003 02:17pm | #1

   That is a whole lot of questions, wrapped into one, and well beyond my meager finishing skills.  Alcohol or water carried dye on raw wood?  Seal the wood, and use as a tint for shellac?  You might want to look at Great Wood Finishes by Jeff Jewitt.  He covers the possibilities well, and is a real artist with dyes.

2. 
   forestgirl | May 20, 2003 07:07pm | #2

   I second the motion for getting Jeff's book, and also a trip to his web site
   http://www.homesteadfinishing.com

   Staining red oak can be tricky because of the large pores.  There's a ton of stuff to consider here, and lots of practice boards in your future I'll bet!

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl   ;-)

3. 
   Paul_Snyder | May 21, 2003 04:29am | #3

   butch - will you be staining/dying the oak and maple at the same time or individually? What finish do you plan to use and how will you apply it? On the oak, do you want the pores the same color as the field or with some contrast? Color(s)?

   Paul

1. 
   simchart | May 21, 2003 08:07am | #4

   I am not planning to color the quilted maple.  As far as the oak, I was going to use a filler which, I guess should be colored with the dye.

1. 
   Paul_Snyder | May 22, 2003 01:53am | #5

   butch - dyes look nice on oak, but it's difficult at best to color the pores with dye. So the way around this is to dye the wood, then seal it with a coat of shellac, then use either a pore filler or glaze over the sealer to color the pores.

   The paste wood pore filler will fill the pores for a level finish (the pores won't show as dimples in the finish). There's a good article, by Jeff Jewitt, on pore filler at this link - Paste Wood Pore Filler.

   If you just want to color the pores, but don't need a full filled look, then a glaze is used after the sealer coat of shellac. jeff Jewitt has another good article describimg this technique at this link - Oak Finish.

   You can use any color dye and pore filler/glaze that you want (you're not limited to the colors used in the article). Homestead Finishing carries these supplies if you don't have a local source.

   Paul