Wood color options

steelshaper

steelshaper

Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Messages
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I have a bunch of curly and quilted maple I want to have dyed and stabilized (WSSI) but I am having trouble deciding on color. I like the teal, but brown or gold seem more natural. What do you guys think?

The red or blue seem like they would be to loud.

Thanks
 
Here is some red box elder dunno if that will help you any. I have had several people that actually want the bright colors .
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I am actually starting to really like the brighter colors myself too! What's nice is when you double dye it with a bright color and then a dark/normal color such as red first and then black. That way the "brightness" of the bright color is dimmed down a bit. I've used red, blue, gold, orange, and even purple dyed box elder burl and have gotten nothing but complements on them. Of course I really do like just the plain brown too. I think it also partly depends on the type of knife you are trying to make.
 
You may want to check with whoever you have stabilize your wood first. Alot of the curly and bigleaf maples turned brown on their own when the sugar carmelized during the stabilization process. I had some buckeye that looked plain but when they stabilized came out the bluest and golden that was beautiful. The stabilization process bring out the best in some of them. The black dye hid a lot of the grain that you would have thought that would have came through. Mike
 
The two factors for me is 1 making the curly and quilted maple a little more exciting and 2 I have to really be sure about the color so I can do a large enough amount to get the cheaper price. I am going to most likely use WSSI. Thanks for the replies.
 
I would send a sample batch to WSSI for a test run. Do three pieces in undyed, three in light brown, three in red, and three in teal. When they come back you will be able to see how this batch of handle material will color. Be aware that every batch of wood (from the same slab of wood) will color differently. I think you will be amazed at how good the quilted comes out with no dye at all. It usually develops golds,browns, and tan highlights.
You can ship the whole big batch to Mike, and have the test batch enclosed in a smaller box , in order to avoid two shippings. Have him do the test and send you the test batch while holding the main batch.Sand and polish the test material to see the real colors (this is important !!), it often looks far different on the outside of the block.
Of course, this test run is only practical if you are having a large batch done. If you only have a couple of blocks, just go with undyed .
Stacy
 
Thanks Stacy I guess I will call them up and talk to them about samples I plan to do a large amount. Thanks again
 
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