RIT Dye to stain wood ???

[Wayne]

HI

Was going to post this in scroll saw since I do tons of it. But I figured I may get a better response here. Has anyone used RIT dye to stain wood? I am looking to fill in colors that are not available and do not want to paint the pieces. So any and all information, especially those with experience is most welcomed. They list it as a usable dye for wood on their web site. SO any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

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Wayne Mahler
God bless and protect our troops that serve so we can be free.

[John Morris]

hmmm, looks interesting Wayne, never used it myself. But it looks like you could get some vivid colors out of it.

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

[Ron Dudelston]

I haven't but I'm curious to see the answers here.

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Ron Dudelston
Site Administrator

Above and Beyond WoodWorks

[Rebecca Fretty]

Hey!  YES!  you can color your wood with Rit Dye.  You can use it straight or dilute it in water depending on the intensity of color you are trying to achieve.  You can also mix colors to give yourself even more options.  We have a color library with formulas on our website, ritdye.com.

Wood absorbs dye well and this allows the beauty of the grains to show through better than a coat of stain that sits on top of the wood.

However, dye is sensitive to sunlight so you need to add a protective clear coat on top to prevent fading from the sun if the piece is exposed to sun on a regular basis.

Let me know how your project ends up or if you have any further questions.  If your questions get too hard, I will bring in my Dye Doctor for extra help!  Cheers.  Rebecca, Ritster from the Rit Studio

[John Morris]

Wonderful Rebecca! Thanks for coming aboard and helping out!

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

[Wayne]

Rebecca

Thank you for that response. I am looking to keep the grain of the wood showing, so I guess dilution is the best ? On your web site, they said to use very hot water, so is the dye deep enough to sand over the wood with 220 grit? Water on wood raises the fibers leaving it fuzzy. Or would a second dye job be in order? I understand about the sun and fading. Any recommended top coats to preserve the wood color? Your web site also stated works best on soft woods which is not a problem. Just want to make sure once the work is done, it stays.  Thanks again for the response.

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Wayne Mahler
God bless and protect our troops that serve so we can be free.

[Ron Dudelston]

I wonder if dye would disolve in mineral spirits/  That would minimize the fuzz.

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Ron Dudelston
Site Administrator

Above and Beyond WoodWorks

[John Morris]

Depends on the dye Ron, water based, alcohol based are the two most common types of dyes. There are oil based dyes on the market as well. The fuzz issue is no problem. Simply wipe down the surface with water to raise the grain and sand before applying the dye if you are using water based solutions. This is recommended, however, recently out of pure laziness I have gotten away from raising the grain with water soluble dyes. I don't see the purpose since you are going to sand between coats of finish anyway. And if you simply sand to 180 before applying the dye on most hardwoods ie cherry, oak, walnut, maple, the fuzz is very minimal. Apply the dye stain, coat with your coating of choice, then sand between the next coat. Raising the grain in my opinion is a wasted step. I know I'll get some backlash from this specially if any manufacture's of water based dyes are out there reading, they almost make it mandatory in their instructions to raise the grain once before applying dyes, but as I said, it's a wast of time I feel. As always, try it out on a test piece.

Ron Dudelston said:

I wonder if dye would disolve in mineral spirits/  That would minimize the fuzz.

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Ron Dudelston
Site Administrator

Above and Beyond WoodWorks

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

[Wayne]

John

You are correct. I used to raise the grain the apply the water based stain. My big question with RIT is how deep it goes. And doing intarsia work, you can't afford to take too much off or the pieces don't fit properly. What caught my attention to RIT was a couple articles I read in ScrollSaw Mag. They were older ones and figured this might be a great way to get the colors I need for orders I have. One being The Last Supper. It uses blues and different shades or red and greens. Hard to find wood that is blue. Blue Pine is as close as you can get, and have had not luck searching for it. With this project having over 800 pieces I don't want to make any mistakes. Just like the project I have running now. A keepsake box with a Intarsia rose and stem in the lid, inlaid. I used Padouk for the Rose and Bloodwood for the stem and leaves. Bloodwood bleeds and you have to finish it before you join it to the rest of the artwork, I'll save that for a different conversation though. RIT seems to be the answer I am looking for. Just need quality information before I start this.

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Wayne Mahler
God bless and protect our troops that serve so we can be free.