Page 1 of 1

Turquoise Stain

Posted: Fri May 26, 2017 4:23 pm
by Gordon Bellerose
I want to do a blue burst guitar, that starts with a turquoise blue in the center.
I'm not sure I can get the right color by simply diluting the blue stain I have.
Does anyone know of good light blue water-base stain. I do want it to be transparent also.

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Fri May 26, 2017 6:42 pm
by Mark Swanson
Use a lacquer tint or dye, and not a stain. With colors like that it is best to tint the finish.

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Fri May 26, 2017 9:28 pm
by Gordon Bellerose
Mark.
I usually do mix the color into water base lacquer. Do you think I will be able to get a light enough blue to look turquoise?
Of course I will practice on scrap. :-)

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Fri May 26, 2017 11:59 pm
by Mark Swanson
I would think so...I have sprayed blue tinted lacquer and the first thin coats looked like that. You will need to start out with a very light colored wood base for sure, white maple or something.

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Sat May 27, 2017 3:04 am
by Peter Wilcox
I've used watercolor paints (the kind that comes in tubes.) They are transparent, and I imagine the good quality ones are color fast.

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Sat May 27, 2017 8:33 am
by David King
Turquoise is going to require some yellow wood or a bit of yellow dye in the center section isn't it? There are several blues and some would get you a lot closer to turquoise than others. Solar-lux sea blue is going to get there, cobalt or royal blue isn't.

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Sat May 27, 2017 8:34 am
by Clay Schaeffer
Mohawk makes a blue dye stain (ultra penetrating stain) that could be mixed with the green dye stain to pull whichever turquoise you might want.

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Sat May 27, 2017 11:41 am
by Gordon Bellerose
Yeah, I've been thinking about this for a while now, and that is why I am asking.

Yellow into blue makes green. I've done that in one of my builds prior to this. A single drop of yellow can turn blue into a really green color.

I'm thinking a bit of white may have to go into the blue, but I only have opaque white, and I don't think white is available in a transparent stain/dye.
The wood I am working with is ash, and a fairly white ash at that. It has some beautiful grain in it, thus the wish for transparency.

I may simply go with a different deeper royal blue, if I can't satisfy my craving for turquoise.

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Sat May 27, 2017 12:35 pm
by Barry Daniels
I forget the details, but I seem to remember that transparent dyes combine differently than opaque colors.

Edit: Look up "additive and subtractive color mixing" to see the differences.

Second Edit: I found an online, interactive additive color mixing wheel. When you add green and blue you get turquoise. http://www.physics-chemistry-interactiv ... thesis.htm

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Sat May 27, 2017 2:36 pm
by Peter Wilcox
This shows the result of pthalo blue applied to the central spalted area which had a slightly yellow tint; the result looks pretty close to turquoise to me.
ricks-top1.jpg
Here's pics of the bare wood, and after application of the watercolor but before lacquer.

http://www.mimf.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php ... 544#p44275

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Sun May 28, 2017 11:21 am
by Bob Francis
Peter Wilcox wrote:This shows the result of pthalo blue applied to the central spalted area which had a slightly yellow tint; the result looks pretty close to turquoise to me.
ricks-top1.jpg
Here's pics of the bare wood, and after application of the watercolor but before lacquer.

http://www.mimf.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php ... 544#p44275
Wow!

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2017 6:41 pm
by Clay Schaeffer
Wow!+

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2017 6:55 pm
by Beate Ritzert
Wow++
Barry Daniels wrote: Edit: Look up "additive and subtractive color mixing" to see the differences.
But we will not have additive mixing unless we use colorful light. When we stain or use tinted laquer, mixing of colors will always be substractive.

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2017 10:56 am
by Barry Daniels
Beate, you may be right about that, but when using tinted lacquers things don't always work out like expected, from my experience.

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2017 2:17 pm
by Randolph Rhett
Here is a guy that does some nice stuff with just wipe on leather dyes:

https://youtu.be/N45O5K3ntik
https://youtu.be/MiJoGUQckwk

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2017 12:03 am
by Gordon Bellerose
Thanks for all the replies. A lot of information coming from the members!
I am looking into the leather dyes. I've been watching Big D guitars for a while now. Thanks for the reminder.

I have wiped on color in the past using alcohol, and water both, as a medium. Water spreads nicer, but raises the grain more. Alcohol dries very quickly, so you have to work quickly.

Peter Wilcox. The thalo blue dye. What kind is it, and where did you get it?

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2017 2:27 am
by Peter Wilcox
Gordon, it's from this watercolor set I bought about 15 years ago at Michaels: https://www.amazon.com/Reeves-Assorted- ... d_sbs_hg_2

But as you can see from my pic of the guitar, different parts of the wood took the color quite differently - the turquoise color came up on the spalted wood that initially had a yellow tint to it. I wiped exactly the same mixture (pthalo blue and a little black, diluted with water) on the whole top - the rest of the wood absorbed the black color too, and the blue is also much more "blue." If you try this you will probably have to add some yellow and possibly green also. A nice thing about watercolor sets is that you have many possibilities. If I decide on a mixture of colors I'm careful to mix enough do do the whole job, because I know I'll never be able to duplicate it exactly no matter how carefully I measure.

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2017 1:50 pm
by Gordon Bellerose
Peter,

You said that these are transparent, correct?

Re: Turquoise Stain

Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2017 10:10 pm
by Peter Wilcox
Gordon Bellerose wrote:Peter,

You said that these are transparent, correct?
Some are transparent in varying degrees, some are opaque. In general, I think most watercolors can be considered transparent because they are diluted significantly in use (in washes anyway.)

Here is a brief list of some transparent colors:
http://www.artguildstore.com/uploads/2/ ... y_list.pdf

Here's some more extensive info on the subject (page 10 for transparency or opaque):
http://www.winsornewton.com/assets/Leaf ... nglish.pdf

As we always say, test on scrap!