# Question on dyeing wood



## muzzy17is (May 22, 2015)

I am going to try dyeing some wood for the first time and was looking for some tips as far as do's and don'ts, types of wood that dye easy, and brand of dye to use. Also is there anyway to make a homemade dye? Looking to have a black and royal blue color on wood when I'm finished.


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## ripjack13 (May 22, 2015)

Brad, I moved this here for ya....


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## Schroedc (May 22, 2015)

Are you dying while stabilizing or dyeing finished pieces?


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## muzzy17is (May 22, 2015)

Finished pieces to be glued up afterwards.


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## Schroedc (May 22, 2015)

I've been using the liquid Trans Tint dyes and been impressed with the color palette and saturation of the colors. I don't know if they'd affect adhesion with glue and would recommend testing first.

I know @Treecycle Hardwoods has been doing some dyeing with spectacular results and tagged him to see what he's been using.


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## Treecycle Hardwoods (May 22, 2015)

I have been using the alumilite dyes but want to try the transtint ones mainly because of the color pallet difference. I am not at all unhappy with the alumilite ones just looking for greater color expansion. I have slowly been getting into custom mixing colors but that work is pretty slow as i try not to use to much juice as sometimes you get colors you don't want. LOL. I have started what I call the rainbow jar where all failed attempts at custom color go... right now i have about 1/2 gallon worth that is basically black/grey which i pretty much use without vacuum as a shading technique before drawing a full vac with a different color.


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## Schroedc (May 22, 2015)

Treecycle Hardwoods said:


> I have been using the alumilite dyes but want to try the transtint ones mainly because of the color pallet difference. I am not at all unhappy with the alumilite ones just looking for greater color expansion. I have slowly been getting into custom mixing colors but that work is pretty slow as i try not to use to much juice as sometimes you get colors you don't want. LOL. I have started what I call the rainbow jar where all failed attempts at custom color go... right now i have about 1/2 gallon worth that is basically black/grey which i pretty much use without vacuum as a shading technique before drawing a full vac with a different color.



Greg, He's dying finished pieces and I was thinking about those boxes you demo'd at the last get together. What were you using for dyes on those?


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## Treecycle Hardwoods (May 22, 2015)

oops! For that I use transfast power dyes. You can get them at wood craft and some instrument builders sites. Off the shelf you can get 1 oz of powder for 11.50 which makes 2 quarts. Unless you are dying lotsa oodles of stuff you will have it for a while. IF you happen to be doing lotsa oodles of stuff you can get a 4 oz jar from the manufacturer pretty cheap also. The same place makes a colorful "crayola 8 pack" type colors and then about 10-20 natural colors. It goes on easy but because it is water based it will raise the grain of the wood so pre conditioning is recommended to prevent that. As with most dyes and colors the transfast ones work best on light colored wood. I personally like maple and basswood to dye because of how true the color stays when it is applied.

Reactions: Informative 1


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## muzzy17is (May 22, 2015)

Thanks for the help. I was leaning towards using maple for dying and after seeing your tip that's where I'm headin.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Jerry B (Jun 4, 2015)

little late, but an alternative would also be WD Lockwood dyes, they're what I use as go-to for raw wood, and coloring Cactus Juice when stabilizing.
I use the water based dyes, but they also come in solvent based, and have an excellent color variety, and a palette I haven't seen anywhere else.
If I don't use the Lockwood, then second preference is TransTint 

http://www.wdlockwood.com/main.html

Reactions: Like 1


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