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Coloring Wood….

If by "to color wood in depth" you mean to color deep into the wood you are only going to deeply go into the wood on end grain. I have serious doubts that mordant, based on aluminum acetate will get very deep and I would have doubts about its ability to be light fast on wood.
 
As cotton is 100% celulose, the idea is dye wood like it is cotton.... but the problem is that the wood is not as porouses as cotton. So I'm looking for a strategy to overcame that. I whant to use white wood, like poplar wood. Does anyone have a sugestion ?
 
Vitor Cruz said:
As cotton is 100% celulose, the idea is dye wood like it is cotton.... but the problem is that the wood is not as porouses as cotton. So I'm looking for a strategy to overcame that. I whant to use white wood, like poplar wood. Does anyone have a sugestion ?
Click to expand...
A solution to what; getting the dye to penetrate deeply? Figure that one out and you will be a hero. Well, except that red oak will suck it up pretty good; but good luck getting red oak to be white.

I made my wife a blue and white McKenzie Childs checkerboard cutting board by bleaching the heck out of the whitest maple I could find and using RIT fabric dye on the blue squares. It looks good, but since I couldn't sand it without losing the dye, it is purely decorative.
 
Given the structure of wood, similar to a bundle of straw, I think Bill is correct. It will penetrate in the end grain, which is the end of the straws, and not into the side grain, which is the side of the straw, made up of the solid cell wall of the wood. 'Impermeable' is what I'm thinking.
 
Are you trying to actually color wood to a significant depth (if so, I'm curious to know why?), or you want the finished piece's finish to appear to have depth? Two totally different things.
 
I know a fiber dyer and asked about this.
Aluminum acetate (as opposed to "alum") is used by fiber dyers because it is gentler on the fiber. The person I spoke to said they didn't think it would matter for wood, and alum itself is cheap and easy to find.
Recipes for fiber dying usually mix alum with water, vinegar, and potassium of some kind - so it is usually food safe.
Mordant is used as a fixative though (prevent wash-out), not to achieve 'deeper' penetration (at least with fiber).
 
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