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I think I recall a thread a few years back with methods to enhance to appearance of curl or other figure using subtle dyes. Please direct me to that, or chime in with current ideas.

I just did this on some figured maple that’s on an electric I’m building.
StewMac colortone dye (I used tobacco brown) in water, wiped over the surface.
This raises the grain so I sanded it back with 320. The dye absorbs more into the figure, kind of like it would on end grain. Sealed with some shellac and it has a couple coats of amber lacquer on it now. Let’s see if I can post a pic...


I’m pretty well pleased.
Sanding after dye runs the risk of being splotchy/uneven - this will be a burst so some of the surface will be covered in darker lacquer.

Be very careful using dyes or stains on figured maple. It's easy to kill the 'lively' nature of the figure and get the 'burnt in' look. Test on off cuts and make sure the figure continues to dance.

MIchael's suggestion is a good one. Or at least test on the other side of the wood. One can use different dyes to get varying effects. I have always done this with a sand back. The clears the stain on the hardwood, leaving the stain in the softwood, accentuating the difference. Leaving stain on the wood, without sanding back, will not maximize the difference in the grain.

Note that curl will pop once finished, so staining is not a necessary activity, but one that is chosen for certain circumstances.

Dye and sanding will enhance the curl/figure but it is a static and flat optical effect. On my personal instruments, I prefer to enhance the "chatoyance" with a "toner". Search on those terms if you want more detail.

I use stains on highly figured woods to highlight flame or curl, but if I don't want to add a lot of color I find that Zpoxy diluted with DNA does a great job of grain enhancement.



This one had a tiny bit of amber stain to give it the faded burst, then Zpoxy and DNA



Basically if you wipe the wood with naphtha and like what you see that will be about how it looks under the finishing resin

That looks great, Freeman.

That's what I'm talking about. If you could see one of Freeman's guitars in person you would be able to see how amazing that kind of finish can be. As you move the guitar around the figure will appear dynamic. The highlights will move around as light hits it from different angles. I much prefer that over the dye/sand technique.

I too much prefer the 3 dimensional look to the shallower higher contrast look of the dye and sand back approach. I suppose it is a matter of preference and your goals. I generally prefer the natural color of the wood and finish to dyes and stains.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I used a little dye in my shellac on this Cherry/Cedar classical. Had to experiment a good bit to get it right.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

All these examples are gorgeous!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I experimented years ago with birdseye maple and curley maple by dying black; sanding back 80% then yellow sanding back then fire engine red. But I have found most important is to prime with pure tung oil as initial finish.I then used blond shellac. But starting with oil based varnish also works. This was small boxes 25 years ago.
I liked the effect of black and yellow sanded back but reading here I see many other ways that look great on guitars. Beautiful wood