Q: I stained a guitar red/brown using water soluble dye. After the stain was dry, I dry brushed dark brown water soluble dye around the edges, fading toward the center for a sunburst-like finish. Clear lacquer coats finished the job. Will the dyes bleed into each other over time and become unattractive?
A: No. Water soluble dye will not bleed into solvent based lacquer. It will bleed into waterbased finish, though. However, bleeding is not your main problem.
Dye without binder added, as is typical for water soluble dye, will dry back to a powder once the water is gone. Thus, the strategy is to let it soak into wood, but wipe off anything that does not soak in. Dye brushed onto the surface and left there will dry and leave a layer of powdered crystals on the wood’s surface. That could cause future coats to delaminate, since they can’t adhere to a layer of powder unless they are able to dissolve it, and solvent based lacquer can not dissolve water soluble dye. In short, you have set the stage for your finish to peel at some future date.
Michael Dresdner
straight talk about wood finishing
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