To Stain, or not to Stain? Is that the question?

[Toleolu]

THANKS JIM AND LYLE, WHAT DO I DISOLVE THE SHELLAC WITH AND THE PROPORTION. GOD BLESS STAY BSAFE ALL DON

If you're talking about shellac flakes, here's a link to a shellac weight chart.

Shellac Weight Chart

A lot of people will start out with a heavier weight, say around 3 to 4 lbs, Store that in an air tight container, then pour out an amount needed and lighten that up by adding more denatured alcohol. I've been playing around with some blonde and garnet flakes and I find a 1 1/2 lb. cut works best for me.

One last thing, after mixing up your initial batch and letting it fully dissolve (I usually make it up a day or two before, some people grind the flakes in a coffee grinder to speed up the process.) strain it through some cheesecloth or a paint filter (coffee filters and paper towels don't work very well) to remove all the bug parts and other debris that you always get in flakes.

Nice thing about shellac, if you mess it up, just wipe it off with denatured alcohol and start over.

Charles

 

[Toleolu]

FWIW.

I didn't see it mentioned but another option for dyeing wood is ink jet printer ink. As I recall, most of that ink is water soluble, but don't quote me on that. I can't remember what I used back in the day, but I'm pretty sure it was water.

Just buy those refill bottles, and start mixing. Pretty cool the colors you can come up with using that ink.

EDIT:

I dug up this pic from back when I was doing guitars, jogged my memory.

The wood is swamp ash. I used the ink jet ink as a tint in the wood fill and in the shellac.

Charles

 

[LyleK1]

FWIW.

I didn't see it mentioned but another option for dyeing wood is ink jet printer ink. As I recall, most of that ink is water soluble, but don't quote me on that. I can't remember what I used back in the day, but I'm pretty sure it was water.

Just buy those refill bottles, and start mixing. Pretty cool the colors you can come up with using that ink.

EDIT:

I dug up this pic from back when I was doing guitars, jogged my memory.

The wood is swamp ash. I used the ink jet ink as a tint in the wood fill and in the shellac.View attachment 269613

Charles

Interesting, I never even considered ink from the printer... hmmmm!
Need to experiment!

 

[Toleolu]

Full disclosure up front, I am no expert, just someone who has played around with this stuff a bit in the past, and just passing along my personal experiences.

I didn't see it mentioned, so my apologies if I'm being redundant here, but something else to consider when staining wood is the type of wood you plan on staining. Not all woods are equal when it comes to staining.

Here's some examples of different stains I was playing around with on birch plywood. I knew going in that staining birch was going to be a little tricky, but I was more interested in color than the actual finish.

Each piece was properly prepped including using a pre stain conditioner. All stains were Min Wax oil based stains.

Colonial Maple:



Special Walnut:



Golden Oak:



Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it can't be done, just saying that some woods are trickier than others when it comes to stain. I'm sure there's plenty of information online for the best way to stain any type of wood out there. Just do a little research and testing on some scrap pieces first.

One alternative would be to apply a tinted shellac finish. It doesn't pop the grain as nicely as a stain, but sometimes it's the best you can come up with.

Shellac tinted with Mahogany Trans Tint:



Again, just my 2 cents.

Hope all are well;

Charles