Dying to accent Growth Rings

[Edward Bartimmo]

Has anyone played with using a dye to accentuate grain lines. I am turning a relatively plain figured piece of mulberry, which is a semi-porous wood. I was thinking about giving the piece a wash with black dye and then sanding it back. My hope is that the semi-porous growth rings absorbing the dye more readily and depper. This way when I sand back the surface returns to the normal mulberry sulfur yellow color with blck lines for the growth rings...

Burning the piece is another option. I was hoping for a cleaner, simpler solition than either tracing the grain lines with a burner or torching the entire piece.

Logic seems sounds... Any insight or advise would be greatly appreciated.

[Jon Nuckles]

I've tried burning mulberry and it worked out ok on a sample. Ended up going with a different look, so I didn't try putting a finish on it. There was definitely a big difference between the early and late wood, and it left very pronounced ridges as well as the black lines when I wire brushed it after burning. One thing to be aware of no matter which way you go is that mulberry loses the sulfur yellow color pretty quickly after it is cut. It will turn a medium brown as it sits.

[John Keeton]

I have not turned mulberry, nor dyed it, but your plan should work. Why not finish cut and sand a section of the turning early, while you still have an 1/8" or more left to take off? Try your technique and see how it works. You can then finish turn the piece and go from there. I do that often on a piece of wood when I am not sure what dye, or oil will do to the color, etc.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Edward - when using dye be aware that it will soak into the endgrain more so than facegrain. Not a problem when you plan on sanding back but remember that at least 1/2 your turning will be endgrain and that will take a bunch of sanding! Looking forward to seeing your results!

[Bill Hensley]

When I want to highlight the grain I like to use a gel stain instead of a dye. I've also mixed an aniline dye to achieve the same effect. I have found that the finer I sand (=> 600) the less the stain impacts the overall color of the wood but will bring out the grain.

[John Keeton]

Steve is correct on the end grain!! One way to reduce that effect is to apply a thin coat of shellac prior to the dye. Sand the shellac back with 320 and 400. The end grain will soak up the shellac more than the face grain, and therefore, when you sand it back, the endgrain will be sealed somewhat thereby reducing the absorption of the dye.

[Prashun Patel]

I'd like to see your results.

If it were me, though, I'd be too nervous about having so much end grain. You're trying to simultaneously highlight and mute parts of the same surface. I think I might just as well sand up to 400 grit and use BLO or amber shellac - or even a slightly dyed shellac - to achieve a good compromise.

[Edward Bartimmo]

Thank you for the insights. My Ode to Mulberry:

Mulberry is a great wood to turn wet or dry! It is consistent with nice figuring and has great chatoyancy. It is nice balance of hardness, but still pleasant to work when dry...like mesquite. This may be a result of the amount of latex in its sap....speculation. It is one of my favorite woods to turn. With exposure to sunlight (UV) the wood darkens from a golden sulfur yellow (almost a sulfur chartreus) to an elegant brown patina (golden mustard). Throughout the color change it retains its figuring and reflective qualities.

If you get a chance turn a lidded box and place it in the sun. The outside will darken noticably within weeks and the inside that is protected will retain the vibarant color.

I will incorporate a couple of the ideas. The piece is small (4" diameter x 2.5" tall) so I can target areas with coating to protect from dye uptake as well as bye application. I will post the final project in a week or so.

PS - Wood Gloat - I cut down a Mulberry last weekend in a lot schedule for clear scraping. It measured 22" in diameter at base with a 10' trunk before branching into the crown with lost of large crotch pieces.

[Bruce Pratt]

I haven't done Mulberry, but here is an Ash NE bowl I hit with a propane torch. The growth rings showed up pretty nice, and it was easy, just a few quick passes - probably could have gotten a more even burn with a flame spreader. The glass jewel is a fix for a design opportunity. Size ~14" x 9" (L x W).
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Bruce

[charlie knighton]

this maple piece has one coat of velet oil on it, after 10 minutes it was wet sanded across grain lines, and wiped down

Voorwerp from my Rover series

[Tony Wheeler]

havent used any mulberry in your fashion but several pieces of end grain which I gave a couple good coats of shellac and thensand blasted and then a heavy coat of black shoe polish then wiped on danish oil which sealed and removed the wax that was not in the layers between the growth rings

[Jim Burr]

I did a little redwood HF a few months ago that had very open grain and huge growth rings. It took dye very well and the coloring made a very nice piece.

[Chip Sutherland]

here's a tease. http://www.donaldderry.com/2index.html

I haven't taken a class with Don but I have played around with dyes/tints to see if can replicate Don's coloring. If I'm after a uniform hue of a single color, I do repeated dye applications and sand back where I want a different hue. Hand sanding allows me to pinpoint where I want a lighter color. So you would want to sand the hard growth ring to pop the mulberry color.

When using more than one color, you are supposed to start with the darkest color to lightest. Jimmy Clewes taught me this...but only after I did it backwards....because I'm a rebel. I've been known to use paint brushes with tints, prisma markers, sharpies and even an airbrush to get the right color in the right place. The caution with markers is the finish may cause it to bleed so test it out first and see if you hate or like the affect then you can deal with it. I'm still learning to layer color correctly.