? Working with aniline dyes

[rdc]

I have applied an aniline dye over lacquer-sand-sealer. While I did not get a total penetration of the dye, I do like the effect. If I now coat it with clear lacquer, will it adhere to the piece and lock in the dye? Also, can one layer the dye between coats of lacquer? Thanks for any info.........rdc

 

[john lucas]

You can put lacquer over what you have done. I haven't tried putting the dye over a project with several coats of lacquer so I can't answer that. It would be pretty simple to set up a test on a scrap piece. That's what I do whenever I'm in doubt about campatability of finishes. I've had too many disasters over the years so now I'll just pull a scrap piece of of the bin and sand it and apply the same sort of finishes I'm playing with. This has save me many yours of heartache.

 

[Steve Worcester]

Having never done it this way, I would still say no. The lacquer seals the wood, so the only thing you are getting the dye in (on) is the lacquer.

 

[underdog]

If you are going to put any colorant over lacquer you will have to put a couple more coats of lacquer over the colorant in order to seal it in. But I don't think this is the recommended procedure.

I've successfully put dye in the lacquer to tint it and gotten good results. But I do suppose that it depends on the dye.

The guy I work for started in the finishing room and has played around with multi-color (polychromatic) dying in the lacquer. In other words you add different colors to different layers and build it up. He says that you can really get some interesting finishes doing this...