I’m finishing up a 7’5 balsa single for myself for Spring. I do love the look of straight balsa, but am thinking of staining it wholy or partially to change a bit and try something new. I’ve used translucent and opaque tints on both solid balsa and sandwich boards in the past (red, yellow, green) but have never tried staining.
From the woodworkers among you, any suggestions on types and/or brands of stain? For clean results and, importantly, UV resistance over time?
Howzit jeffery, What ever stain you use can't be oil based is one thing for sure and I have never stained any wood that I have glassed and only tints which have been either yellow or red myself for a hot look or a cool look. Aloha,Kokua
I always wanted to try potasium di chromate. (or it might be bi chromate look it up Kodak website) It’s a photo chemical. Powder, you mix it with water. It’s a salt and basically sucks surface moisture out of the wood and makes it darker. I’ve used it when I used to make banjos thirty-five years ago.
It’s what Martin guitars uses on mahagony necks to darken them.Works on walnut too. Always wondered what it would do to balsa but never tried it.
You also might try the alcohol based dyes available from musical instrument supply houses (Stewart Macdonald in Ohio). They come in various colors. I think they are called aniline? dyes.It’s what they use to stain guitars and do those sunburst designs. It will take some research.
Any commercial acrylic stain for wood will do, IMHO. Acrylic should be no problem either with poly or epoxy. What’s more, it will probably act as a filler coat as well. Never tried it, though, but I don’t see why it shouldn’t work.
Here’s a few different dye stains of bamboo and balsa skins I did with cheap $2 a box RIT fabric dye suspended in 99% pure isopropyl alcohol…
The skins on the completed boards are blonde bamboo dyed with crimson and the other a mixture of kelly and forrest green … (I wish I had of used just the lighter Kelly green mixed with yellow., Doh!!).
The balsa skins , one with the herringbone pattern and one normal, are dyed with crimson red and tangerine orange… I later mixed orange and yellow dye together for a lighter orange on another skin… You can adjust tint shades with darker or ligter dyes…The picture was taken right after dyeing… You wash the wood once more with a diluted mix to blend in any dark spots, then seal with a thin coat of heated or diluted epoxy…
Dye mixed with alcohol is supposed to be less color fast as when the dye is mixed with water… I wanted no part of a water and wood combination, so I went for quick evaporation ,for obvious reasons…I can live with fading, if any, but not with water trapped in wood skins… So far no fading noticed…
The only problem you might have is the dye won’t absorb into the balsa evenly if any of the resin you glued the wood on with has pushed through to the outer surface, The dye doesn’t like to soak into glue, so I learned the hard way to just tack the balsa together with tiny anounts of Zap or crazy glue ,then dye the wood first before you glue it to the board… That way the dye absorbs into the wood evenly…
I use UV resistant RR epoxy, and UV resistant clear coats…
Thank you gentlemen - that gets me a little closer to where I want to be.
Kokua - definitely no oil! I’ve done some tints as well, with good results. I guess I’m curious about different effects at the moment!
Bill - I hadn’t thought of the guitar connection - surprising since my brother-in-law works at JC Guitars and we are always talking wood and guitar production. I’ll be picking his brain later on this week.
Pompano - I never, ever, in a million years would have thought of RIT dye. Well, maybe in a million, but… Did you mix with water or with alcohol like Kiterider?
Kiterider - the glue might be an issue on this single. The blank had a few defects where I’ve had to block in replacement wood. Most of these areas are quite clean but I’ll double check that before the brush hits the wood!
Balsa - any brands that you’d recommend?
I’ll do a couple of test panels before staining the board. Something I’ve learned the hard way.
Hey Jeffery , Ive never had any success with woodstains....the porousity of the wood makes it hard to get a nice even coat...always a bit blotchy......had success putting tint in the primer coat before glassing.......epoxy primer darkens and highlites the wood grain......Heres a before and after shot with epoxy primer.......
