"blending" different colors of dyes

[Zach England]

I am wondering if I can get some quick advice. I am trying to do some presentation baseball bats and I want to blend the colors from yellow at one end to red at the other, moving gradually through the various shades of orange in the middle. Is this something I can accomplish with water-based dyes, ala lockwood? I've never used dyes before. Can I mix the pigments and sort of "blur" the transitions on the lathe?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

[Zach England]

I should add:

I don't have spray equipment

These will be in either rock maple or white ash

[Tim Johnson]

You can add different amounts of different colors to get your "final" desired color with WB dyes. I would add that you need to conduct test samples and finish all the way to the end. Many find the dye color they applied looks terrible, and it is often dull and looks "off", but after application of a finish coat, the appearance drastically changes, so don't stop short. Good luck, and make sure you take notes of what you blend together so you can replicate it if necessary.

[Steve Schoene]

It's going to be a challenge without spray equipment, but here is what I'd do, if you aren't too time pressed. I'd first mix yellow dye, fairly light concentration and dye the entire surface you want to color except the very end that you want to be pure red. Then, after that is dry, you can dye the surface again, except leaving more area closer to the end planned to be red without the second coat. Do this progressively so that the pure yellow end has a number of coats of dye and the pure red end has no yellow. If you apply the dye quickly to dry surface you will progressively darken the surface. (A little hair drier could speed drying of water based dye.)

Then, you can do the same thing with red dye, over the yellow, with the first coat giving a yellow orange, and subsequent coats more and more red orange until you have reached the pure red end.

You should be able to do this with water soluble dye, but if you are doing this on the lathe you can probably use an alcohol soluble dye that would dry much quicker. The application would have to be quick enough that you don't redissolve enough of the lower coats to pull that dye back up into the applicator.

You will definately need to practice before working on the actual presentation items. Do remember that if it goes badly you can remove most all of the dye with chlorine bleach and some elbow grease. You can "fuze" boundaries between coats with water, but you really start complicating things.

[Zach England]

Thanks. That is about what I was thinking.

I'm not time pressed--it's a favor for a friend with no real deadline. I just ordered all of the yellow, red and orange tints and concentrates in the water-based lockwood dyes on TFWW. I think I have six different colors to experiment with. What I thought I'd do is chuck up one of the bat blanks and round it out, then experiment with the finish on it before actually turning one.

This is one of those things where I can see it in my head and am not sure I can replicate what I see. I am finding there is a paucity of information on the web about using these dyes. Can anyone recommend a link or a book? I read the tutorial on TFWW and it didn't get into the kind of detail I am looking for.

[Dan O'Sullivan]

Zach I would go to an art supply shop in your area and get a color wheel. In my case, I bought a few poster boards(paper) and did some experimenting with blending colors and playing with the primary/secondary colors. I like what Steve said using the yellow as a base and start. When I build furniture in walnut and maple I generally start with a yellow base and warm it up with colors. With the color wheel you can do all kinds of things.

My 2 cents: stay with the water based stuff if this is a first time deal.

good luck

[Gordon Harner]

I have been chewing on your question for about a week now. I think iif, I understand your problem, that the solution might be to use toners over a seal coat. Mohawk Finishes produces tone sprays of many different wood colors as well as the primary colors for the finish repair industry. With experimentation you should be able to blend the sprays to almost any effect. The mohawk website lists local suppliers who should also be able to set you up too. Good Luck.