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Stain for the grain

Joined
Oct 11, 2018
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I've always used linseed oil to make the grain "pop". The downside is that it is difficult to get the gloss finish which people associate with "museum quality" work. Even with several coats of shellac, the finest Klingspor, Abranet, nonwoven pads, etc. will eventually load up and make a gloss finish problematic. If you seal the wood, of course there is no possibility of a stain. What stain as a first coat do you use to merely enhance the grain or bring out a burl figure which does not interfere with subsequent layers of shellac, lacquer, or whatever makes your work shine? Something that soaks in, brings out the figure of wood, and behaves itself.
 

john lucas

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I use Trans Tint dyes when I want to pop grain on curly maple. I apply brown or sometimes a color. Then sand most of it off. It soaks into the figure and wont sand off of that. Then I apply whatever finish I want.
 
Joined
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Thanks for the tip.
Exploring Trans Tint I found this:
https://www.joewoodworker.com/transtints.htm
Amber Brown seems to be the way to go
Trans ting dyes fad quite quickly. I have some Jimmy clewes turned bowls from classes and three years later some of the colors are faded out so much so they don’t look nice to display anymore. You have to keep piece out of direct sunlight for sure, and my pieces where in indirect sunlight and faded badly.

I’ll send you a pm on what I use and some other professional turners. Will really make grain pop and you can spray any finish over it when dry.
 
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You can also use really thin coats of orange or garnet shellac and sand that back. Then apply any top coat on that. If you use orange, you can add multiple coats to get the color you want. You'll likely have to buy flakes in those shellac colors, and I guess denatured alcohol has become hard to find. But you won't have to worry as much about age color changing.
 
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I have quite a few pieces colored with transtint dye that have not faded. I did my home computer desk ~ 10 years ago, just as bright now, as are the turnings I have done. Mine are shielded from the sun, but do get some indirect sunlight.

As for "pop the grain" - this tends to be confusing terminology, to me anyway. Sometimes people mean blotching, i.e. color variation across the surface due to varying amounts of liquid absorption by varying grain type, as I think is the case here, but sometimes chatoyance, or the "tiger or cat's eye" effect, is referred to as "grain pop".

I use a couple of different methods to achieve levels of both blotching and chatoyance. If I plan to use a fully filled hi gloss "piano" finish, I use transtint dyes. Many times I use a dark color 1st and sand a lot off, as described above, then add a lighter color, then topcoat. Many times a toner coat is used to bring out intensity of the lighter color. Pic below is not great but shows the color variation and hi gloss. I may one day figure out how to post a video which shows the chatoyance much better.
IMG_1941a.jpg


For a more subdued , lower gloss finish with usually a single more muted color, I use semi gloss MW poly thinned 1:1 with ms, and add WD Lockwood oil based dye to the poly before application. It is applied like danish oil, 2-4 coats, possibly wet sanded, then buffed. The example below was done using just a bit of the dye component of MW Dark Walnut stain to bring out the grain of the maple.

IMG_0507.JPG
 
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