Staining cherry wood

Victoria, An old stain called 'garnet' should be a close fit to the "deep red/burgundy" color. If it's no longer available, how about some cheap dyed burgundy wine as a spirit stain? Andre Cold Duck stained our Thanksgiving table cloth & napkins very well. You fine wine connoisseurs can stop your snickering. HTH, (tho I doubt it) Arch

Fortiter,

I will look for the stain, but using wine is not a good idea (though I think you were on the square). Anything with water will raise the grain and for such a small, intricately carved hand tool, that could mean sanding and sanding and sanding more than I already do.

Cold Duck...ah, the Woodstock days. Also, Blue Nun and what was that apple crap we'd drink? Boone's Farm Apple Wine. Yuk!

V

than I already do.

Victoria, If you need to avoid raising the grain, look for oil-soluble aniline dyes. They come in a wide variety of colors, and you can mix colors to get the exact shade you want. Here's a link to one supplier:

page includes a color chart to give you an idea of the colorsavailable. These are powders you dissolve in the oil yourself. Behlen makes a line of stains called Solar-Lux that is a premixed version of the same thing, but I don't have a pointer to a color chart for you.

There are also alcohol-soluble aniline dyes - these dry almost instantly, but are said to be not as resistant to fading caused by UV light. If that's not a concern for you, have a look at this page:

it helps, Henry Bibb

Hi Victoria. If your looking for a wood similar to redheart in density that would be almost any exotic. Some are a bit brittle but they are almost all fairly dense. Of all the exotics redheart is about the worst for retaining color. It looks real nice when fresh cut but it will fade to a pale rust color. Blocking out UV light will prolong the red color but it WILL turn. If you want a wood that carves nice use maple and dye it with water soluble dye. If you go to my album in the WoW group or to my website under new turnings you will see a maple turning I dyed red. Now this is red. :-) And to top it all off maple is inexpensive and is very common. It also comes in any size dowel you might want.

Bob, Naugatuck Ct.

Victoria, you might do a google search on the subject of cherry staining.  You might also try a little oven cleaner which is supposed to work but you surely want to wear eye and hand protection.  Wash the piece well with water when you are done. animaux wrote: Okay, I'm having way too much trouble finding red heart, and one place gave me a price of

12 dollars for one piece of wood, 12" x 3/8"  Holy cow! Anyway, cherry seems to have a good density, but the color is not that sexy. So, if I were to stain it, how do I get it that deep red/burgundy color?  Is there a specific stain, oil or gel I can use to achieve that?  I can carve and buff it as smooth, or almost as smooth as the red heart, but the color...nobody likes the light wood. Victoria

Another possibility would be the fabric dyes sold in most supermarkets. They are water based and will raise the grain a bit but there are a variety of colors. You could blend multiple colors for the shade that you want.

But drink the wine! Don't rub it on wood!

Harry

Hi Victoria, although I usually prefer to sit a piece in direct sunlight and let nature takes its course, I have had good luck with Minwax "Red Mahogany" oil based stain when immediately matching an old antique piece was desired. Any oil based varnish, shellac or oil finish of your chice may be applied over it. I don't recommend "all-in-one" finishes.

First of all, holy cow! Beautiful work. I can't imagine the tools one would need to do such magnificent work, but I think that is something I am going to have to do in my lifetime. I adore your work.

It appears you got a perfectly beautiful finish on the oak. Is this because the size oak pieces you use are large? When I carve oak dowels there is a ton of airspace in the cells. Do you use wood filler, or is this wood you use from an inner part of the tree?

Gee, there is so much to learn about wood, it could take a lifetime on that, alone. For today, you are my craftsman hero! Just beautiful.

Victoria

Thanks Victoria, Oak is a very open grained wood that doesn't carve well. To fill the grain in oak I use a slurry of danish oil while sanding. The slurry fills the grain. A film finish can also fill the grain in oak but many coats are required (sanding between coats.) Definately not a good carving wood.

Bob, Naugatuck Ct.

I agree. Use hard maple dowels if you are going to use stain. No reason to look further.

Bill

That's what I thought. Your work...wow.

Victoria