Michael Dresdner » pigment

Crisp masking lines

Michael — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:00:56 +0000

Q: How do I achieve a nice crisp symmetrical line when using two different stains? For example I want to stain a light triangle inside a dark rectangle. The stain has bled under the painter’s tape in my tests.
A: There are a variety of techniques, but they depend on both the type of stain you are using and the type of wood. Without knowing both, I can’t advise you of the best course of action. Here’s just one of the many ways to approach this that works well with fairly absorbent wood and pigmented stain.
Stain the lighter color over the entire surface. Mask off what will be darker, and seal the light triangle with a sealer that will not dissolve with the solvent in your darker stain. Now reverse the process; mask off the light triangle using either lacquer tape (typically green) or pin striping tape, (typically olive). Now add the secondary dark stain to the exposed areas. The combination of the correct tape atop a sealed surface should prevent the dark stain from creeping onto the light area, and still give the look of stained wood rather than a tinted finish.

Unstaining

Michael — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:00:25 +0000

Q: My stepson recently purchased stain from the cabinet supplier of his kitchen. The plan was to match the color to his unfinished crown molding. The color is wrong. Since the molding has contours, it can’t be easily sanded off. Is there a solution for stripping down to bare wood?
A: Most stains can be scrubbed at least part way off with lacquer thinner on nylon abrasive pads. It won’t remove all the stain, but you may get enough off that you can restain with something that adjusts for the problems while bringing you up to the color you want. That can be done either with a second stain operation on raw wood, or with a toner, which is stain mixed in coating. Either way you will need to mix a custom color stain to compensate for what you could not remove, and add whatever colors are missing from what you want to end up with. This is not necessarily a job for a neophyte as it does take some skill with color matching and compensating.

Drifting along

Michael — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:00:47 +0000

Q: How can I produce a driftwood finish, like the one in this picture? I am thinking of using bleach, chemical stains and dye rather than paint or pigment stain.
A: I have to say that the photo you sent looks nothing like what I would call driftwood. In fact it looks like roughly prepared wood with open cracks and grain raised with water that has been sealed with an off white toner, wet glazed with burnt umber, then topped with dead flat clear; a rather classic antique finish. If that is what you want, that’s how to recreate it. If, on the other hand, you want driftwood, try this.
Raise the grain by flooding the wood with water, wiping off the excess, then leaving it overnight to dry. Add cracks if you choose, or distress marks, if that is what you like. Mimic erosion by scrubbing the wood aggressively with a wire brush. This works best on softwoods whose early wood bands abrade more quickly than tougher late wood ones. Add black and off white paint to their solvent to make a quick stain, but mix only perfunctorily. A piebald gray is the goal here. Wipe the paint onto the wood and off. You should have areas of lighter and darker gray that looks similar to real driftwood.

Bigleaf, big pattern

Michael — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:00:07 +0000

Q: I am making a cabinet door of solid cherry with a quilted maple panel. I want a bit of contrast between the cherry and maple and to show off the quilting in the maple. I was planning to stain the maple with a cherry color oil based stain and sand it lightly with 600 grit before applying wipe on polyurethane on the entire door.
A: Most quilted maple is western bigleaf maple, and unlike its eastern rock maple cousin, will absorb some pigmented stain. However, the ideal way to intensify grain in maple is to go with something that has a lower molecular weight. In the case of stains, that would be dye. A weak dye, flooded on and wiped off, will intensify the quilt pattern as well as adding color. Of course, an oil based finish, such as wipe on polyurethane, will add a slight amber color, which will also intensify the grain. In short, you don’t need stain to bring out the grain, though if your goal is to change the color to match the cherry, yet still pop the grain, dye is the way to go.

Odds of even

Michael — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:49:19 +0000

Q: I built a small table from reclaimed mahogany. There is a lot of variance in the colour and grain pattern. I want to stain this so to even out the colour. What do you recommend?
A: Most pigmented stains work very well on mahogany to even coloration, in large part because they take full advantage of the large pores. In extreme cases, we usually use a two stage approach to making wildly varying woods look one color; we start by making the background uniform with a dye stain, usually in a color in between the darkest and lightest values to bring the two together. Once the dye is dry, we follow up with a pigmented stain to add unifying color atop the dye and in the pores. It works surprisingly well.

Color me opaque

Michael — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:00:28 +0000

Q: I want to tint clear nitrocellulose lacquer to produce a solid, opaque color. What types of colorants can I use?
A: The ideal choice is called lacquer paste; essentially lacquer with a dense amount of pigment cut into it. You can find it in a wide range of colors at the same industrial supplier outlets that sell lacquer. Other options include universal tinting colors compatible with non-aqueous systems, such as Mixol, and to a small degree, artist’s oil colors, but oil colors can only be added in limited amounts.

Matching Martin

Michael — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:00:05 +0000

Q: I’m restoring a Martin guitar, and after staining, I added three very
light wash coats of 1lb. cut shellac. I’d like to strike the pores black
with Finishers Glaze seal with sanding sealer, fill pores with Bartley’s dark, seal and topcoat. Martin mahogany pores are darkened nicely. I’m trying to do it the right way.
A: I’m afraid you are doing it the hard way. The easy way is to stain the wood, preferably with water soluble dye, seal with one thin coat of SealCoat or dewaxed shellac, then fill the pores with a dark pore filler. There is no glaze on Martin guitars, and many were stained and filled in one step, on the raw wood, with staining pore filler. Keep it simple and you will have better results.

Fishy finish

Michael — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:00:06 +0000

Q: I stripped an oak fish tank stand and applied two heavy coats of espresso colored Varathane oil stain, leaving it sit one hour before wiping it off. I then applied two heavy coats of Watco Teak Oil and left them overnight. I found a sticky, gooey mess in the morning. When I tried to remove it using more Teak Oil, much of the color came off as well.
A: I am not surprised. Stain is meant to be wiped on and wiped off completely, leaving only what the wood can absorb. Layering it on heavily or leaving it longer won’t result in anything but trouble. Granted, more porous woods, like poplar, will absorb more stain than a dense wood like oak, and will get darker. The fact that stain came off when you scrubbed off the excess finish is an indicator that you left more on the wood than it was able to absorb.
The way around that is to use multiple types of color, not try to force one stain to override the nature of the wood you are putting it on. For instance, to get a very dark espresso, I’d start with a dark brownish black water soluble dye directly onto the raw, sanded wood, then follow that, when the dye was dry, with a dark wiping stain flooded on and wiped off. The combination will give you a dark, even color with wood grain still showing.
Teak oil is also meant to be wiped off in 15 minutes, not overnight, and letting it sit that long will indeed create a sticky mess. The simple answer is you really should read the directions and do what they say. At this point, you would be very wise to remove it all and start over.
Incidentally, Teak Oil, which is the exterior version of Danish oil, is not the finish I would have chosen in this case, for a variety of reasons that I have covered in previous posts. I’d have chosen an oil based polyurethane, either wipe on, gel or brush on, and I would go with several coats at least.

Ink or glue, but not the two

Michael — Fri, 21 May 2010 14:00:28 +0000

Q: If I use India ink for ebonizing, will that affect the glue up?
A: Yep. Any stain will diminish the bonding ability of glue, though some more than others. Dyes are less obstructive than pigments (India ink is a pigment) but the rule is that if you stain before glue up, mask off the glue surfaces to keep stain off them.

Purple heartbreak

Michael — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:00:19 +0000

Q: I made a small box out of Purple Heart. What can I finish it with to get a brilliant purple color?
A: Purple stain or dye. I realize that sounds like a strange answer, but it will make more sense if you bear with me a bit and let me explain a few things about purpleheart.
When you first cut or sand purpleheart, it turns a sort of grayish, ashy color. Let it sit in the presence of oxygen (air) and in a couple of days it once again deepens to its nice, rich purple color. For that reason, it is the only wood we generally do not finish immediately after sanding, Letting it sit two days will give you more rich color.
That’s the good news. The bad is that any finish that is amber, such as an oil, most lacquers, shellac or oil varnish, will discolor the purple, since yellow and purple make brown. Thus, it’s good to avoid amber finishes. Worse, once exposed to light, the wood will soon fade to brown, even after it is finished. Keeping the piece in the dark will help, but then, we can’t much enjoy it in the dark. That’s why many people resort to staining the wood purple, especially with lightfast pigments or largely lightfast dyes. By adding stain that matches the original color of the wood before finishing, you can keep the same color and also preserve that color longer after finishing.