dye ?

[broketooth]

can some one tell me about the use of dyes on the backs of osage selfbows  the way its done and possibly adding camo patterns. ruddy

[Pat B]

Ruddy, I like to let osage mellow slowly without using dye. It will darken quite a bit if left in direct sunlight.   If you want to dye it Fiebings leather dye or Rit dye mixed with alcohol will do the job.

[broketooth]

well mr pat i have visuals on pencil marks underneath the shellac when i first worked this stave.  will it darken enough that you wont see these marks. ruddy

[Pat B]

Is the shellac the finish or its it what you sealed the back with? If that sand the shellac and the pencil marks off and add your regular finish. I think even if you dye over the pencil marks they will show up is the sunlight.

[broketooth]

the shellac is what i sealed it with after i  shaped the bow. i put the shellac over the pencil mark, marking the centerline of the bow. i will try to sand it off with 400 grit wet/dry sand paper. im ready to finish this bow and move on to the next. the tg swap bow, im so lookin foward to it. ruddy

[Pat B]

You can wipe most of the shellac off with alcohol first before sanding.

[ber643]

I told Ruddy yesterday that I thought acetone would work better than mineral spirits (I don't care for using mineral spirits) but he didn't have any acetone). I didn't even think about alcohol - Duh! - he probably has some of that around.

As much as I like them, I kinda hate to see Ruddy put even snakeskins  on the back of that bow as it has a real pretty back.

[Pat B]

I believe that shellac uses alcohol as a carrier so alcohol will reconstitute it for easy removal.

[ber643]

I think you're right about that, Pat (seems i heard that somewhere - perhaps you). Ruddy's wife did have some alcohol and so he used that. Took the shellac off but not all the pencil, he said (in phonecon). You know how hard pencil is to get off wood (other than sanding/scraping it away). He's getting close to a finished bow now and with any luck i'll get to see/shoot it Wed or Fri when he visits. Looking forward to it.

[Pat B]

He may have to use a light scraping to remove the pencil marks. A finish sanding after that should have the bow ready for finish.

[Osagetree]

I know this wont work on broketooths application but have you ever tried ths to darken fresh osage?

Chlorine bleach! It will oxidize the wood faster than sunlight but not quite as purty as naturaly aged wood.

broketooth, huh,,, funny thing,, I am headed to get two pulled out.  

[Pat B]

I've used the bleach to oxidize osage and it does take the bright yellow down a notch or two.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Try some red oak Minwax stain on the belly sometime, it really makes the grain jump out at ya, but it won't soak into the ring on the back of the bow.....it just wipes off. Red oak minwax stain is really super close to the natural color of Osage that's been aged. I'll have to try the bleach trick on the ring side and see what it looks like. This is the first I've heard of that.
Hmmmmm......learn something new here everyday.  

[Osagetree]

Draino works too, maybe better!

[hova]

i was considering using bleach to de-fungus some elm firewood that was struck by lightning , and stood for two years. lots of long pieces in the wife's grandpa's wood pile . stuff burned so hot it almost burned through his stove...


might have to try this on a couple scraps...


-hov

[Walt Francis]

Hova, thanks for the reminder, always do a test run on scraps if you are going to wipe any chemical, including ammonia and bleach, on your bow wood;  It may darken it more then you want.

On a couple of bows I used industrial strength ammonia, employing the same method used when building my craftsman style furniture.  I build a plastic tent and place the ammonia in a plastic lid from a 50-quart tote, and then place the bow inside the tent.  This method slowly turns the osage (or oak) to an aged brown while allowing you to control the darkness/color by removing it from the tent.  Be careful and do it outside, the fumes are extremely toxic.

[hova]

i had heard of something like that before. i thought for some reason they used peroxide , but whatever it was , they basically used the exact method you mention walt. the results on brand new wood were just amazing.


i think it was an antique repair guy that did this , iirc to mimic the aged patina of old wood/leather.


-hov

[Walt Francis]

Hova, I got the process from several different books on building mission style furniture.  The technique has been around for at least a 140 years, probably longer.