Dyeing Ash?

[ildar]

I'm thinking about an ash body, and wanted to do something a little different with a finish, notably, a red or blue dye then clear coat. Is this possible or feasible with ash? If so, which is better swamp ash or hard ash as far as accepting the dye?

 

[-CB-]

Ash can give you mixed results.  Blue especially... some dyes are better than others, but even with that said, the wood itself is sort of fickle.  Some pieces will do dye very nicely, others will have a hard spot or soft spot that takes the color very differently.

A better approach would be to tint the first coat(s) of finish, then clearcoat over those.

 

[jackthehack]

Check out Tonar's posts about bleaching alder/ash prior to doing a blue dye.....

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=1324.0

Toner will work, but dye can work as well. I'll be doing the next couple of projects in dyes/stains/oil finishes as it's too cold here now and I don't have a warm enough place to shoot in the dead of winter....

 

[ildar]

Thanks for the replies.
CB-I have limited facilities/equipment for spraying, this will likely be a wipe on dye/aerosol nitro clear coat finish. I've done this before with quite good results (a lot of rubbing and polishing).
jack-I wonder if bleaching ash would be advantageous. It seems Tonar bleached the alder to take some of the natural tint out of the wood. Ash is already kind of white.

 

[willyk]

Never having done a blue finish, I'm curious..Would bleaching the ash make it more evenly receptive to the dye?

 

[jackthehack]

I've seen Tonar do several different dye jobs on alser and ash on this and the old forum; I think the dye takes better that way; is more vivid from what I've seen, I'll let him chime in....

 

[-CB-]

His recent blue was stunning.  The key there was an aniline dye, not metallic dye... but that was alder -which takes dye pretty well.

 

[Tonar8352]

I would not bleach ash.

I like dyes on ash.  I have done several different colors including a blue Tele and it turned out exactly like I had planned.  Check the Tele thread for the Blue Tele to see it.

There are other ways to color ash with out staining the wood though.  If I wanted a perfectly even blue finish on ash I would follow this finish schedule.

1. First seal the wood with a very thin wash coat of lacquer. 2 parts of thinner to one part nitro lacquer.
2. Mix blue Color in Oil colorant and a small amount of black in oil based paste wood filler.  That will fill the grain without staining the wood since you have sealed it but the grain is still very open.  It will also bring out the grain lines.
3. Lightly sand and repeat the above process in the same order.  Let it set a week for the filler to shrink and sand it back real light.  If you do not have any burn through put a couple coats of finish on it to make sure it is completely filled and level.
4. Now you are ready for your color coat.  Shade your lacquer with Metallic MEK, Aniline or Color in Oil dyes.  The Metallic MEK is probably the most colorfast.  I shoot shaded lacquer with my air pressure up real high and my fluid backed off so that it atomizes real fine.  Also I hold the gun about 12 inches from the surface so I don’t get lap marks.  If it takes a couple of coats that is ok.  I have also learned to go a little heavy on the edges since the color will float up into the clear coats that will follow and you will have more transparent edges.
5. Your ready to put you clears on.

If I were doing a blue I would use McFadden clear water white lacquer since the regular production lacquers might green up the blue as it starts to yellow from UV.