Oh yea...it's purple

[Watershed]

Here's a board in Blue/Black dye.
You can see from the overspray, that it's blue.
Just seems to turn green on the maple.

James

 

[dbw]

I like the matching dye.  The color looks great!

 

[Mor Paul]

I like the matching dye.  The color looks great!

+1
Try a slight sandback.

 

[tfarny]

I vote for matching as well.

 

[Watershed]

Sorry guys, the purple met with the planer.
Bit of progress, though.

Here is the Blue / Black MEK board above, washed back with lacquer thinner, and sanded as well.
It has one coat of clear.

I have had much better success with blue by using an Aniline dye.
The MEK, I think, is a bit difficult to work with.  For one, it doesn't stain the wood, it has to be mixed with lacquer, and just tints the lacquer.
It gets a nice color, but you aren't quite sure what it will be.  I gotta say though, although not really blue, the distressed MEK Blue above does look pretty cool IMO.

The Aniline will actually stain the wood if you wipe it on, and in my experience, is the color you intend on.
This piece is:
1.  Black MEK / Lacquer mix sprayed on, then wiped back with lacquer thinner for contrast.
2.  Aniline blue, mixed in Alcohol, and wiped on with a rag.
3.  One coat of clear.

James

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I'm for the contrast.  Like you said, they will never be a 100% match.  Besides, IMO, it's futile to try and match a natural wood without a finish (the purpleheart) to a dyed different variety of wood, the maple.  If you wanted the maple to look like the purpleheart, you would've just gotten a purpleheart body.

 

[tfarny]

I mixed the MEK dye with naphtha and it stained pretty darn well, not sure what you're meaning. Haven't applied any finish yet.

 

[Watershed]

I mixed the MEK dye with naphtha and it stained pretty darn well, not sure what you're meaning. Haven't applied any finish yet.

Naptha, hmmm.

I thinned it with denatured alcohol, smeared it on with a rag, and it didn't really stain the wood.  Perhaps that was my problem.
When it was wet you saw the color, but when it dried, it just sort of created a grey haze.
It works fine when you mix it in lacquer, though.

I'll try naptha, but I didn't think they would mix.  The Stewmac Colortone stuff doesn't mix with naptha, like oil and water.

Are you talking about this stuff?
http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts.asp?CategoryName=Dyes&NameProdHeader=Dye+Concentrates
The MEK Based?
For staining unfinished wood or adding transparent coloring to the new water-base lacquers, we recommend using the water-based dyes. For tinting lacquer (and other organic solvent finishes) use the MEK-based dyes.

I did a few more boards with aniline (which were thinned with denatured alcohol) and they have turned out pretty nice.
The clear is drying.

James

 

[tfarny]

Whoops, guess I didn't pay attention to those directions! You decide if it's dyed dark enough:

 

[Watershed]

So I got to doing another testboard, this time using aniline dyes.
I'm not anti-MEK, I just had these around and have never tried them.

I experimented with getting two tones from the fame maple this time.
I first planed the testboard, then sanded to 220 grit. 
It's not the greatest sample of flamed maple by any means, but enough to show the contrasting colors.

Starting with a clean board, I dyed three strips on it; black, red, and yellow.
Once done, I washed each back with denatured alcohol.
Once dry, I sanded back with 220 grit till there was unstained maple showing, while having about an equal proportion of the stained color remaining.
Then I just hit the whole thing with with a wet rag of blue.
Once that dried, I shot a thick coat of clear over everything.

I got three interesting combinations out of it.
Here's a close-up of the Black / Blue:

Then a Red / Blue:

Then a Yellow / Blue:

I'm really leaning toward the Black / Blue, I'm going to play it safe and stay away from red on this one.

James

 

[DangerousR6]

The blue/black and red/blue are pretty cool..... :icon_thumright:

 

[Watershed]

I mixed the MEK dye with naphtha and it stained pretty darn well, not sure what you're meaning. Haven't applied any finish yet.

I re-read your thread on that guitar, and think I found out why it worked for you. 
I believe it worked because you first applied a coat or two of Minwax "stain" (red mahogany).  Was it the kind with the Poly mixed in already?
It seems from your thread that you applied the MEK Dye on top of that.

Trust me, I have tried it several times now.  Wiping MEK Dye on bare unfinished wood results in a nasty hard to remove mess.
I would not suggest anyone try it.  It's very nice stuff when mixed with lacquer, shellac or a similar solvent base, though.

I'd show you pictures of the testboard, but it too met with the planer.

James

 

[tfarny]

I first applied some dark minwax stain, then sanded back, then applied red mahogany (not red!) and sanded that back. No finish of any kind. Then I applied MEK dye mixed with Naphtha. I also applied MEK dye to the headstock after just a light sanding, no previous treatment of any kind, same mixture of MEK / Naphtha. Stained well, got a good color match. What can I say.... :dontknow:

 

[Watershed]

Hmm, I'm at a loss.  I got a big mess, but again, I used denatured alcohol.

I put a drop of the MEK dye in some naptha last night, and it did dissolve.
I'm really curious now.  I have some pine that I can try it on with naptha tonight.

We'll see how that goes.

James

 

[Watershed]

I had to try.
On the left is Blue MEK dye thinned with naptha.
On the right is Blue MEK dye thinned with denatured alcohol.
Both in the same proportions of 20% dye/80% thinner.
Wiped on with a paper towel.

These are two pine boards, pine being much softer and more porous than maple.
Still, it's a visible difference.  The maple board was not that pretty in the end, though.
Thinned with naptha it does fill in the soft spots nicely.  Much more manageable.
Very interesting.

tfarny, how much did you thin the dye?
Thank you sir, I would have never tried that.
ccasion14:

 

[blue313]

Wow, what a visible difference the solvent made.  That's pretty cool.

 

[tfarny]

OH boy, I have to apologize! I just realized, I diluted mine in lacquer thinner, not naphtha! I'm not kidding and I feel like an idiot. I love your experiment, I think those things are cool, but I feel like a jerk for telling you the wrong thing. Sorry man, I'm in the middle of moving and got a lot on my mind these last few weeks.
I am glad it worked though!
If you're still interested in my ratios, I have no idea what they were. I just got it good and dark, tested it on a pine board, and went to town with several passes till it got plenty of color. I was just after a nice color and didn't care about repeatability.

I'm actually thinking now about sanding it all off and trying a trans black or something, I really can't decide if I like my purple/red or not.

edit: if you feel up to it, it would be very cool to see how lacquer thinner compares to the two you've got going now. This is good stuff.

 

[Watershed]

OH boy, I have to apologize! I just realized, I diluted mine in lacquer thinner, not naphtha! I'm not kidding and I feel like an idiot. I love your experiment, I think those things are cool, but I feel like a jerk for telling you the wrong thing. Sorry man, I'm in the middle of moving and got a lot on my mind these last few weeks.
I am glad it worked though!
If you're still interested in my ratios, I have no idea what they were. I just got it good and dark, tested it on a pine board, and went to town with several passes till it got plenty of color. I was just after a nice color and didn't care about repeatability.

I'm actually thinking now about sanding it all off and trying a trans black or something, I really can't decide if I like my purple/red or not.

edit: if you feel up to it, it would be very cool to see how lacquer thinner compares to the two you've got going now. This is good stuff.

No worries at all, it's all in the name of science and only took a few minutes.
It was mainly out of curiosity, cause wiping it on was just not working for me with the MEK stuff.
It is different than working with Aniline.  Just adding to the bank of finishing related info. 

I'd be curious to see how lacquer thinner compares as well.
I'd guess somewhere in between, but that's a guess.

James

 

[Mor Paul]

Hey, Tim, where are you moving to?

 

[tfarny]

Queens, proud home of Archie Bunker and the Ramones!