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dying wood question

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2018 7:28 am
by Chris Richards
I'm thinking of doing a guitar with somewhat of a "lute" look made from alternate strips of mahogany and maple and I wanted to put much thinner strips of wood between the strips, getting a contrast I can see may be difficult, a light wood wouldn't work because of the maple so I was going to go dark, something like ebony but I didn't want to go to that expense. I was hoping to use maple and dye it black but since the back is going to be shaped I'm unsure whether the dye will penetrate enough to not get carved away.

Has anyone got any ideas/alternatives, I really just want say 2mm thick different coloured strips of wood between the mahogany and maple..

Thanks
Chris

Re: dying wood question

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2018 10:39 am
by Gordon Bellerose
You could try some Wenge. Or black walnut.
Or for a different effect try padauk, or purpleheart.

Re: dying wood question

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2018 10:42 am
by Barry Daniels
You can buy dyed veneer from Luthiers Mercantile.

I tried pressure cooking veneer strips with dye but it only penetrated a short distance.

Re: dying wood question

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2018 6:10 am
by Chris Richards
Thanks for the help, yes I suspected that dying wood would be a waste of time, I'll try and hunt down some cheap wood as Gordon suggests..

Re: dying wood question

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2018 1:01 pm
by Mark Wybierala
You could always make a 1/4" dyed cap using maple and strips of dyed wooden binding. LMI has a range of colors.

Re: dying wood question

Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 3:53 pm
by Andrew Porter
A pretty good video on "Ebonizing" wood. Fairly long but the take away is archival grade India Ink (i.e. Speedball or Dick Blick brands).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0E7E6uSPJY

Re: dying wood question

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 11:04 pm
by Jim McConkey
Probably the same stuff, but most lutherie supply places carry black fingerboard dye. It is commonly used on violin fingerboards, but can be used any any instrument. From my limited experience, it seems to hold up well.

Re: dying wood question

Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 7:52 am
by Chris Richards
Haven't checked back here for a while, but thank you for the continuing help...