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Issues Dyeing Maple
http://w-ww.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10123&t=52135
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Author:  chrisobrien07 [ Fri Jul 05, 2019 1:40 am ]
Post subject:  Issues Dyeing Maple

Folks,
I am looking for some help with dyeing a guitar

The wood type is maple
attach an image of the undyed wood and the dyed wood

the body was sanded at 80 , 120 and 220

I have not sanded back the dyed wood yet


I seems to me that the maple is not taking the dye very well?
the dye in question is Liberon WBDASS 15ml Concentrated Water Based Dye
any opinions as to what I could be doing wrong?
Id like the blue to take to the maple better... this a white and blue mix by the way.
this guitar was my first handmade one so I'm kinda bummed at the results.

Thanks
Chris

Author:  rlrhett [ Fri Jul 05, 2019 7:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Issues Dyeing Maple

I believe the way you’ve carved the upper cut away and arm relief has exposed end grain while the surface is face grain. If you are dying bare wood you will never get even absorption from the two different grains.

It will be hard to sand out the dye from the end grain, but my advice would be to sand the guitar back to natural wood and seal the wood. Then spray a tint coat rather than trying to dye bare wood. Maybe some of the real finish gurus have a better suggestion?


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Author:  B. Howard [ Sat Jul 06, 2019 6:02 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Issues Dyeing Maple

First, resize those pics so we can actually see them on a single screen....

I never use white dye, ever. That is part of the issue, the white is taking very opaque.

Most of your problems are from just bad prep sanding. The areas that were sanded very fine do not take stain as well as those that are rougher. You can see the difference in sanding around your pickup cavities in particular.

You should really be working out your finish schedule and dye strengths on scrap, not the actual guitar.

Author:  dofthesea [ Sat Jul 06, 2019 12:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Issues Dyeing Maple

What everyone said above. Always test out finishes on scraps. I can't tell you how many times i've had to start over because of my OCD/ fast tracking General Contractor mentality.

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