can i see your bamboo dye/stain jobs?

[Echatham]

trying to pick analine dye colors on a color chart is really hard        

[Eric Krewson]

Brown leather dye, put on heavy and rubbed out between the nodes with a gray scotch bright pad.

 

[D]

Here's a little bit of a picture.  Its not the best by no means.  I done this one by painting a solid red base color and then putting on about five coats of brown leather dye over it.

 

[Echatham]

Eric yes! thats what im looking for.

[Bowjunkie]

I would post some pics but I can't get to my computer right now. Maybe later today.

I really enjoy messing with aniline dyes on selfbows and bamboo backed bows. The possibilies are many. At times, I've completely changed the color of the bows, and at others simply used a more diluted dye to enhance the grain and natural coloring... sometimes both on the same bow... fading from dyed wood into the natural coloring... sometimes back to dyed at the tips... sometimes not.

There are a few 'tricks' involved. Methods like Eric's Scotch Brite pad mentioned above. I like that one myself and also use 0000 steel wool to take dye off the latewood while leaving it in the earlywood... which REALLY makes the grain pop out at you. I've done this on just certain parts of a bow, and over the whole thing... depends on my mood.

The best way to learn is just go for it, don't hold back, try different techniques of application, of manipulation after application, various amounts of pigment diluted in the medium, etc. Even if you have to 'sacrifice' or 'settle' on the first few bows, you'll be gaining skills and experience that will help you greatly on succeeding bows.

You can check colors and such on test pieces, but often the best place to try the various techniques is right on the bow.

By the way Eric, generally, you don't want to apply dye, then try to blend colors with an unpigmented medium... like clear alcohol... isn't that what you asked? it will just wipe 99% of it right back off... also good to know :^) You need to blend with the same cloth patches that you used to apply your base colors... 'dragging' one color into the next... sometimes rewetting them a little or a lot, sometimes getting the look you're after as the patch itself has a mix of the colors in it from the blending, sometimes getting what you need as the patches begin to dry out.

Like anything else, it just takes doin... takes practice.

I've used dyes in all three basic mediums... oil, alcohol, and water and prefer them in that order. Water raises the grain too much and alcohol flashes off faster than oil, making it just a little harder to blend colors.

The 'oil' based dyes aren't actually mixed in oil, but rather oil based solvents like turpentine, naphtha, tuluol, paint thinner, etc. I dyed a lot of bows with alcohol, but once I tried oil, I liked it better.

[Sam Harper]

On this one, I put down a layer of green leather dye, let that dry, then put on a layer of navy blue leather dye and let that dry.  That I used steel wool between the nodes.  Then I cut a square of t-shirt, rolled it up like a joint, put squeeze clamps on one edge of it, dabbed some black dye on it, and used it to apply the black strips by just pressing it on the back.

 

On this one, I put on a layer of red leather dye.  Then I used a mouth atomizer to blow some black leather dye on the nodes.

 

On this one, I put down a layer of red leather dye, then a layer of blue leather dye.  Then I steel wooled between the nodes.  Then I used a mouth atomizer to blow black leather dye on the nodes.  Then I steel wooled a little more are the edges of the black leather dye.

 

On this one, I used a medium brown leather dye and steel wooled between the nodes.

 

These two aren't bamboo, but I think I used a medium brown leather dye on the top one.  Or it might've been mahogany.  On the bottom one, I used a green aniline dye, then a thin paint brush and medium brown or mahogany to paint on the strips.

 

On this one, I put on a leather of medium brown leather dye, then wrapped a t-shirt around my finger, got it wet with medium brown, and dabbed it along the limbs.

 

[red hill]

Where do you get the leather dye? Hobby/craft shops?

[Sam Harper]

You can get it at shoe repair places.  I got mine at a Tandy store in Austin TX.

[Echatham]

Sam what's a mouth atomizer?

[Sam Harper]

It's kind of like an air brush except that instead of connecting it to compressed air, you blow through it.

 http://www.jerrysartarama.com/discount-art-supplies/painting-supplies/atomizers.htm?utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping&gclid=CLjur6_5proCFQLl7Aod_WIAWQ

[Echatham]

Pretty nifty

[Sam Harper]

Yeah, I got the idea from James Parker.  It wastes a lot of dye, though.