wood dye

[Sid Bright]

I was wondering if anyone knows of guidelines for dying wood. I don't mean just the surface of, but to get dye completely through 1/4 inch boards. I have been dying some poplar using the same method as they do for stabilizing wood. that being with a vacuum chamber and drawing liquid dye into the wood. very lengthy process.

Also thank you all for a warm welcome

 

[hockenbery]

I use dyes and bleach often but as a surface treatment applied after turning and sanding.
One of their nice prosperities is that they usually penetrate less than a 1/16” deep so a major gaff can be sanded out and hardly noticeable depending on the form.

getting it deeper requires pressure or vacuum and both methods will have various depth limits depending on the wood. A porous wood like poplar will get dye further below the surface than a dense wood like ebony.

you can get bags designed for vacuum to do large pieces.

 

[Tom Albrecht]

Now I am curious--- why do you want the dye to penetrate so deeply?

 

[Richard Coers]

Almost a holy grail kind of thing. I've never done it, but have read about cycling the vacuum to remove air, then draw in the dye. Then repeat the process. It would be my opinion that quarter sawn wood would accept the dye easier than flat sawn. A very high quality pump would certainly help. Something close to full vacuum at sea level kind of pump. In the 28" Hg kind of pump.

 

[Gary Beasley]

You will not want to use an alcohol based dye, or even water based, because such low pressures cause them to boil at room temperature. Thats why the stabilizing folks use dyes in the Cactus Juice made for that use. You can do multiple cycles with different colors too for a multihued effect if you bake the piece between vacuum runs.

 

[Sid Bright]

thanks to all with your replies, I am dying the wood to make multi colored wood bowls like the lidded box I put in the gallery.