Staining an Opinel--to a dark tone

Fish30114

Fish30114

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I've seen a lot of threads on modding Opinels, but I can't seem to find info on how to get the wood darkened. I have stripped one completely down to bare wood, but the Watco Danish oil in Walnut color won't make it dark at all. I'm looking for a rich Walnut color, so I'm looking for advice experience from ya'll.
 
The normal wood on the Opinels does not take stain well. I used ebony stain and it will darken the grain but not penetrate deep enough to stay real dark after finish sanding. I think it is the nature of the wood. May buy an oak handled Opinel and that should take the stain better.

I sand, then keep sanding some more, then more with 80 grit. Stain and sand again with 120 repeating up to 320. Then multiple coats of linseed oil and sanding up to 2500 grit. Looks nice but not dark. Will post pic later in this thread if interested.
 
Spameater12003 said:
The normal wood on the Opinels does not take stain well. I used ebony stain and it will darken the grain but not penetrate deep enough to stay real dark after finish sanding. I think it is the nature of the wood. May buy an oak handled Opinel and that should take the stain better.

I sand, then keep sanding some more, then more with 80 grit. Stain and sand again with 120 repeating up to 320. Then multiple coats of linseed oil and sanding up to 2500 grit. Looks nice but not dark. Will post pic later in this thread if interested.
Click to expand...


Please do! :thumbup:
 
Had the same problem with the Beechwood Opinels. I just gave up and bought the ones with the exotic woods. My olivewood blade is AMAZING looking!
 
Dark brown leather die. Brush on and wipe off, repeat, then wipe with a light colored cloth until all of the excess is off. Then I hand rub boiled linseed oil and let it sit inside for a day or so. I usually repeat this step as well. Good luck.
 
I've been able to get nice dark ebony like finishes by doing the following. Strip off all original coating, shape to my desired size, soak in boiled linseed overnight, then wipe off excess BLO and char the wood over the stove. After that I wipe it clean, sand it with my higher grit wet dry paper adding BLO as I go. And then wipe very thoroughly with a rap and BLO till all the soot comes off and let it dry and soak in whatever BLO is on the surface. If it seems to lighten too much with the finishing sands I run a little more BLO on t and char some more. Works great. Just be careful over the stove and wipe off oil as it boils out of the wood.
 
I used some buffalo brown leather dye because that's what I had on hand and it turned out really nice.
 
Thanks fella's, I think I'll try the dye finish route, I'm notoriously bad at burning things--even when it's on purpose!
 
Beech is notorious for not taking stain well and for staining blotchy. Using a dye seems to be a common solution. They look more solid colored that way from what I've seen in pics, not sure.

I have been trying to "pre-color" with something water based lately. There are pre-stain conditioners which are supposed to help stain absorb more evenly and to add some color before the oil based stain.

Being me and liking to experiment (read-play) I just tried vinegroon and teabags since I had it handy. Vinegroon is rust and vinegar and will turn a walnut handled Opinel a beautiful black color. It reacts with tannin to form the color. Even with the teabag for tannin it doesn't do a whole lot for beech. It does give some color and then that is additive to the oil based stain later.

Then I used my normal Opie staining technique and dipped in a dark stain and then rubbed it in vigorously with my fingers. I don't know what it does, I suspect it rubs stain, dirt, and dead skin cells into the grain. ;) Anyway, it gets it darker.

It is still blotchy in some cases but that is not as noticable if you get things darker. It's kind of in between the solid color and a stain. Seems to be a crapshoot with some pieces looking much better, or worse. Depends on the grain.

If you want a really nice accentuated grain, you'll have to go premium wood.
 
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I've had success staining Opinels, normally I do something lighter, but decided I would use something darker, so I went through my extra stains, I had English walnut, chestnut, and Jacobean, I decided on the Jacobean. Sanded the Opinel #10 in typical fashion, but prior to staining I "open up" the woods pores and wet it with a damp rag/cloth then wipe off, opening it up to accept more stain , bringing out the grain a little also. Then apply your stain, a little heavier than normal and it soak in, not for 20min, about a hour, then wipe off excess. Because I had something specific in mind I did two more coats, the 3rd coat I left over night then cleaned off excess with a cloth, let it dry for about a day, then I finished mine with a hardwood floor poly, I think I did 2 coats.


Next to a lighter stained #9






Pete
 
Stitch, could you say more about the water trick? How long?

I open up the grain by sanding with 80 grit and stopping there. After stain and several top coats are applied, then I use finer grits to sand the top coats to smooth.
 
Stitch, that looks great! What type of stain did you use. And, are you saying that after sanding to a smooth finish you soak with water? I've got this one sanded down to smooth, and one coat (unsuccessful) of Watco Danish oil finish on it--but it seems that would be easy to sand off the light tone that it has given this Opi so far.

Thanks a lot brother.
 
Fish30114 said:
Thanks fella's, I think I'll try the dye finish route, I'm notoriously bad at burning things--even when it's on purpose!
Click to expand...

I did both(!)-- o'er-dyed a #7 (more just coated it-- as noted, stains and dyes don't really "take"), and scorched a #8 Garden Knife:

IMG_9351.jpg~original


~ P.
 
pertinux, those both look good, but I'm still a-scared of 'charcoaling' one!

I wish they offered a garden knife in walnut--and a #10 version!
 
tumblr_muvhfdniZi1r4zf5xo1_1280.jpg


If you're staining an Opie's handle, learn to love variability.

These three got the same treatment at the same time. Top to bottom, a #9 in carbon bought a couple years ago, a #8 garden in stainless (ditto), a #6 in carbon bought in the middle 90s (note the earlier blade stamp).

I sanded the handles thoroughly with 180 grit to remove the varnish and rough up the wood surface. Wiped them down with a damp cloth to get the sanding dust off. Then —

• mixed up a batch of Rit cocoa brown clothing dye with hot water in a mason jar
• opened the knives and dunked the handles into the dye up to the lock ring
• you hold them in place with a binder clip on the blade
• I forget how long they stayed in the dye but it was about two minutes
• remove the knives and put one each in a glass container to dry and harden the dye
• be careful not to splash the dye around — it really stains!
• I then rinsed the handles off under cold running water (removes excess caked dye from the surface)
• let dry again in glass containers

At this point, you choose your finish — I used a semi-gloss urethane with four or five coats wiped on with a cloth and let dry between each coat (this may take a day or two — but wait for it).

Now it's obvious the handles responded differently, although they are all beechwood. The #6 had been used and carried around a fair bit for several years, so I wasn't surprised when it took the dye less deeply than the new #9. (Absorbed oils probably.) The #8's lightness was surprising however.

But perhaps it shouldn't be surprising as I have no way to calibrate the degree of sanding & dyeing each got nor the ability of the wood to open its grain and take the dye. So therefore same grit, fresh paper for each, same effort, same length of time in the same batch at the same temperature = different results.

Well, all I can say is — this is craftsmanship, not physics. And since each is a one-off item not a commercial product for sale, I'm totally content.
 
Arebeebee, your results are nice. I recently retried the no 10 I modded, sanded down to bare again, rubbed with a wet sponge (water) and then wiped down with Minwax dark walnut stain. I got weak results, the knife is now sitting with a very 'washed out' look to it, albeit a light walnut tone. I am seriously thinking about trying the Rit dye method. It's definitely a journey, but once I figure it out, I have several other Opi's waiting in the wings!
 
Fish30114 said:
Arebeebee, your results are nice. I recently retried the no 10 I modded, sanded down to bare again, rubbed with a wet sponge (water) and then wiped down with Minwax dark walnut stain. I got weak results, the knife is now sitting with a very 'washed out' look to it, albeit a light walnut tone. I am seriously thinking about trying the Rit dye method. It's definitely a journey, but once I figure it out, I have several other Opi's waiting in the wings!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the appreciation; first time I'd tried something like this. The Rit + hot water from the stove kettle brews up an opaque liquid that will probably give you varying results, depending on how much you've raised the grain, the wood's "penetrability," how long it sits in the dye, and probably how hot the water is, too. (Mine wasn't boiling, but you wouldn't want to put your fingers into it.) As I say, each dye job is a one of a kind.

What I have not (yet) attemped is to sand away as much as possible of a previous attempt at staining, then take a second hack at it with the Rit. I used cocoa brown from the start, but Rit has a more neutral "dark brown" which I haven't tried.

https://www.ritstudio.com/color-library/core-colors/

I wanted a warm tone and got it, but if I were doing a second attempt on top of an existing light walnut tone (such as you have), well, I'd prepare myself for less-than-predictable results. My uneducated hunch is that going to a darker tone is easier than trying to lighten one or shift its color (i.e., change a neutral tone toward a warm one).
 
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