deep staining???

[John Terefenko]

OK I did not know where to put this question so I chose here. I am looking to stain toothpicks with various colors. Now you say that has got to be the easiest thing going. Not so fast. Have tried it using rit dye in alcohol and a water based dye. Nothing has been able to penetrate the entire toothpick. I want the colors to be vibrant right through because my project calls for viewing the end grains. Do I need to pretreat the toothpicks with something or is there a stronger more penetrating dye??? Thanks for your help. Thats right a toothpick. If I can get this to work I want to try chop sticks which is even thicker. ( I am in the process of looking for colored plastic toothpicks but am having a hard time finding them too.)

PS I hope one of the answers is not to place them in a vaccuum and try to pull the color through. Hope there is a better way.

[Sam Yerardi]

John,

The first thought that comes to mind is to use a pressure cooker. I would only use water-based dye, NOT ALCOHOL. It will take some experimentation but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

[John Terefenko]

I was thinking more along the lines of soaking them in something to get them loosened up. I just not sure if wooden tothpicks are not coated with something or so finely sanded that they don't fray or splinter. This is keeping the stain from penetrating. Just thinking out loud.

[Jamie Buxton]

If you ever do figure out a process, please post it. I spent a fair amount of energy trying to do this, with no success. I was trying to dye thin strips to be used as inlay -- faux ebony, if you will. I like to install the strips slightly proud, and then scrape/sand them flush, so it is necessary that the color penetrate through the strips. My strips were about .04" thick -- not too different from your toothpicks. I tried various colorants -- india ink, aniline dye, and such. I tried pressure cooking. I tried vacuum. Nothing I tried worked.

[Howard Phillips]

No idea if it will help but .... might hinder more, but I've heard that stain conditioner "opens the pores"

[Craig Coney]

can you try lye to soak them in first like you do tie-die shirts?

I think if you had a vacuum, even a food saver, that would work fine.

[John Schreiber]

I don't know how it's done but there's something called "plastic infused wood" which seems to demonstrate that it is possible. I found http://www.woodsure.com/whatiswoodsure.htm.

My other suggestion would be high temperatures and perhaps a pressure pot.

[John Schreiber]

And . . . What'cha making?

[Shawn Patel]

If the end grain has to be visible, why not cut yr picks to length and THEN dye? The end grain is probably the easiest way to transmit the dye through a piece anyway. Expose the e.g., then soak the picks.

I've been able to (unintentionally) get BLO to bleed through a 2" block of oak by soaking the end grain.

You might also try heating the wood and a waterbased dye.