Coloring finishes......

[Dennis Peacock]

I think my head is spinning.
I'm looking to better educate myself on how to best color my finishes......
Lacquer
Shellac
Polyurethane

Then we get into the colorants.....
Transtint - Expensive for a 2 ounce bottle
Cal-Tint - Same price as Transtint but 4 times the product per bottle
ViviTone - Same price as Cal-Tint

Then there's the whole deal of going to the local hobby store and buying some UTC's and mixing in whatever finish I want to use.
I'm looking for Transparent coloring as well as opaque coloring and then solid coloring. Yes, I know this covers a very broad spectrum here....but it really shouldn't be all that hard...is it????

[Prashun Patel]

Transtint is expensive but a little goes LONG way.

If you want to color your shellac or lacquer to make a toner, this is a good product to do it with. The solvent in Transtint is compatible with shellac. I used it in Deft Lacquer with success (to my surprise) and I suspect but cannot confirm that it's compatible with water based finishes.

If you want to color the wood separately before the topcoat, then look into Transfast or Lockwood water-based dyes.

[Mike Monroe]

Don't forget about oil artist paints, the little tubes of paint at the hobby store. I've used artist oil paints to get glaze colored just right or to mix up a custom stain - petroleum based solvent only or turpentine.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Transtint is expensive but a little goes LONG way.

If you really want to tone your shellac or lacquer to make a toner, this is a good product to do it with.

^^^Do This^^^ The cost of the Transtint is a miniscule rounding error in the grand scale of things - the wood, the other finishing products, your time...........wrong time to sweat the pennies.............

[Jim Becker]

What Prashun said!

[John TenEyck]

It's not hard but you are covering a lot of ground. It would be better to pick one finish, or group of finishes based on solvent type, and one coloring system, and learn how to use it before moving on to something else. Prashun suggested Transtint dye in shellac, and others if you want to use toners. It will give you pure, transparent color, although you can completely mask the wood if you make the concentration high enough or apply a lot of coats. Cal-Tint, ViviTone, and other UTC's are pigments. If you want opaque colors, these are the products to use.

Pick a finish and whether you want transparent or opaque color and we'll go from there.

John

PS: Transtint is cheap. One bottle will typically do several projects.