Dying bamboo with Vinegar & Steel Wool

[Msturm]

I'm way late.  These are quotes found in my field notes recently stumbled upon. These are 3 years old.
 It may help someone using the search function. Here are some relevant quotes and thoughts from these 2015 experiments.

 Vinegar and steel wool (vinegaroon)  does not work with raw bamboo, even if you scrape the rind.  I brushed a sample of bamboo: No effect.

Further testing: Brushed bamboo with rind removed in : in *1 Coffee grounds, *2 Yew tea, *3 Red oak shaving tea. (note both teas boiled at a rolling boil with 3 cups of water per 1 cup of packed shavings/scraper curls for 5 minutes and brushed on at what I consider a heavily penetrating/saturating level.) *4 Carlo Rossi Burgundy.

Let dry 24 hours then applied vinegaroon (0000 steel wool one bundle to one cup of white vinegar set for 5 days in Makaha sun)

Results as noted in my field notes from 2015:
*1 Rubbish. Drink coffee don't dye wood with it. Straw color at best. looks like scraped wet bamboo even when dry. doo doo!
*2  Mehhhhhh. Yew makes great fire starters not a pre dye tea. no winner here.
*3  WORKS!   let it dry for a day and hit it with vinegaroon and it turned an elderly woman hair style grey.  Silver fox when unfinished. When finished was a medium flat grey (think wet pine ash).
*4 Uncle Rossi burgundy:  Got similar though less dark result to the oak tea *3.  ( a real light grey, even after finished. Might mix to make a cool grey on grey camo effect)
 
I am sure I had pictures at one point but it has been a long time since this little experiment has taken place. I no longer have that computer. All I have left is my notes. I hope this helps someone.

So... Recommendations: if you want to dye your bamboo backing the hair color of your grandmother's posse remove the rind and soak that bad boy in Carlo Rossi burgundy or Red Oak shaving tea and hit it with vinagroon.  It will darken up when you clear coat it.  

I will probably readdress this experiment now that I live in Alaska and Birch/ Alder/ aspen forests abound and that deep and dark grey may be a legit camo pattern.  Next bamboo backed bow I get will have some form of this stain on it.

Msturm.

[Msturm]

Additionally, looking back the tiller on this bow was in need of work. I wish I knew then what I know now.

[Roy from Pa]

For boo, you can't beat alcohol based aniline dye. A small bottle of powder lasts for years. I mix it with denatured alcohol. After being applied, you can hit the boo with 0000 steel wool and lighten up any areas you want.

[Eric Krewson]

Dang, Roy is right again, he knows his stuff. Leather dye is aniline dye and works the same way.

I have noticed that color of some of my older leather dyed bamboo backed bows has faded a good bit. They are not near as dark as they once were.

The in thing in flintlock gun stock staining is to coat the wood with tannic acid before applying the aqufortis, the results are spectacular.

 

[wood carver 2]

Eric, that is the most stunning piece of wood I have ever seen! You don't take that pretty little thing outside in the weather do you?      
Dave.

[Roy from Pa]

Spectacular is right. Wow Eric that is something special...

[Eric Krewson]

Not my gun, you should see the rest of it, engraved, inlayed and carved by Jim Kibler, a very expensive gun. The stock is burl maple.

If you google his name and go to his site you can see his work, the best of the best.

[Roy from Pa]

Eric, have you ever done that process on your bows?

The in thing in flintlock gun stock staining is to coat the wood with tannic acid before applying the aqufortis, the results are spectacular.

Can you tell me more about that process? I'd love to try that on a bow..

[BMorv]

Yeah I was wondering the same thing Roy.  It looks like you have to apply heat to make the iron come out of the acid solution, and I’m not sure how good that would be for glue on a boo laminate.   Seems like most people use aqua fortis on maple.  I just watched like 5 YouTube videos trying to see the process.  
I’ll test it out on boo if you all think it would work. That would be an awesome look on a bow.

[Eric Krewson]

Aqufortis turns osage grey black, I tried it.

If someone made a birdseye maple riser, wiped tannic acid on it followed by aqufortis and heat you would have much the same results as the gunstock pictured above.

I don't think the process would do much to bamboo.

I have plenty of aqufortis and ferric nitrate, I will do a test tomorrow on some scrap bamboo to see what happens.