Hi. Newbie question here.
Planning my first hollow wood surfboard and am looking at ways to finish the deck. I’ve seen some beautiful boards here and assume that the contrasting wood is often due to different exotic and often expensive woods being used.
I’m limited to cedar, paulownia, and pine…and whatever else I can get at Home Depot.
Does anyone use wood stain on thier strips when building a board?
Thanks for the help.
Ray
Are you planning on glassing over the wood or leaving it bare?
If you are going to glass over it, I think the stain would mess with the bond.
I would avoid using stain. You will be amazed at how much color and richness the resin will bring to the wood. Most stains are oil based, and will wreak havoc with your glassiing. The woods you mention will provide amazing contrast and will look quite beautiful once you hit it with epoxy.
Redwood planking, with redwood and basswood tail block
I did what someone on here called a “piss coat” basically thinned out lam resin onto the bare wood before glassing. Seems to me you could use a translucent tint and a tape off to achieve what you’re looking for. Then glass over it.
I have seen people use resin tints when glassing over wood.
Like andy says, the resin usually brings out all the color you could want.
Another thing you could try is white vinegar, drop a rusty item in and let it sit. Then spray the vinegar on the wood, and let it dry. When you glass, the depth of color and contrast can be interesting.
Ray.
Transfast dyes.
With this product you can make even the cheapest wood look cool…
Leave the rich natural darker colored wood like red wood cedar natural and maybe tint the lighter stuff for some real excitement…
I own a set of Pearl BLX studio all birch drums that have dyed blue shells much like the #3290 Sapphire blue shown in the examples below… The transparent lacquer over the dyed blue wood is beautiful…
You can do loads or creative things with with dyed wood. Lighter colored wood like blond bamboo, birch, pine etc. look the best when dyed although you can add depth to darker species.
http://www.homesteadfinishingproducts.com/pdf/transfast_rev4-2008.pdf
Van Helsing.
Looks cool Van, but how would you apply to a wood board. I assume since it’s a powder you need to suspend it somehow to apply to the wood correct? Denatured alcohol maybe?
Ignore my advice: everyone on here knows more than me. That said, here’s a board I made a few years ago (my #2). Its made of a $12 sheet of 1/4# plywood from home depot. I wanted to “age” it a bit so I did a nice and sloppy job to start with, then stained it with water based wood stain (again from home depot) and sanding back through the sand in a few places before I glassed it with epoxy. I added the blue stripes with opaque resin, again being careful to make a mess and then sanding back through in a few places. I like how it turned out and everything seems to have worked fine untill I managed to hit a jetty one fine morning… its not been right since then.
I have had some success with water-based wood stain. Thou I have not used it on a whole board, I have stained some wood fins I made from a 5-ply Maple plywood. I also bought it from the Depot. I just put a cheater coat of lam resin over it before I laminated it. No problems with the bond. I should also say it was a PU lam. They have a pretty good selection as far as colors. Pretty much have always had a good experience with water-based products and resin work.
I do agree with the guys and their comments on just use resin over the bare wood to bring out the woods natural colors. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised by the results.
These are resin tints over my Agave wood. really accents the woods natural color.
Barry Snyder
A water based stain will work just fine. To make your own; the vinegar trick Huck mentioned or coffee grounds. You can also buy water based colorants at a paint store. Most paint stores have switched over to water based colorants in their tinting/computer machines. Dunn-Edwards will sell you a small bottle of colorant off their machine. Most stains start with Sienna and Umber. Either “burnt” or “raw”. Home Depot stocks water based stains. If they are “jell” stains they may need to be thinned. I witnessed the staining of a Balsa with a water-based stain a few years back that fooled the “Experts” into thinking it was a 50’s Balsa. The stain made new balsa look old. The woods you’ve mentioned though will come to live “as is” once you hit them with resin.
Hi ray
As to your question regarding stain. You cannot use oil based stain as it is not compatable with epoxy or pu. If you like the idea of a augmented color spectrum have a look at analine die. It is mixed with water or alchahol and can be controlled quite easily. Also it will work well with epoxy. I believe woodcraft supply carries it. That being said I would check your local home depots stock of cedar and pine for contrasting woods. Cedar is wonderful to work and is available in a wide variety of colors from creamy white to a rich chocolate. With a water bottle and a scrap of cloth you can apply a sparing bit of water to a board you are considering. This will give you an idea of the color of the wood once it is saturated with epoxy. If you are patient you can accumulate a pallet of great colors to work with. Try to find boards free of knots as possible. This will give you more usable pieces per board. Have fun with choosing your lumber. Also try to find boards which are quarter sawn in their minor thickness. Meaning the 2/4 you are looking at should be quarter sawn in its 2" dimension. This will yield the most stable and consistent grain from one stick of lumber to the next.
