Help looking for staining info

[bentstick54]

I’ve tried searching for past posts on people who blended different color stains on their Osage bows with little success. Can anyone help point me in the right direction. Picture of some I’ve saved from somewhere in the past as an example.

[mmattockx]

I would look at superdave's posts, he has done some spectacularly nice staining work in the past.


Mark

[Hamish]

 Dean Torges popularised using dyes on his osage bows.  I would check out his book. and videos. He was a meticulous guy with his woodworking/bowmaking processes.

[Pat B]

 Dean Torges used aniline dye powder with denatured alcohol. Fiebings leather is an aniline dye in alcohol and works well on all bow woods I have tried

[bentstick54]

Thanks guys. Pat I’ve got a couple of shades of Fielbings on hand I’m playing with. Assuming Truoil should go over it fine.

[Hamish]

You should be fine with tru oil. I'd test an area first to make sure, though. Anything like shellac, with an alcohol-based solvent would be a no no.

[Burnsie]

What's the steel wool and vinegar stuff?

[Hamish]

Steel wool and vinegar. I think you could put most clear finishes on top of it.

Never used it on osage, only on white woods. More subtle than modern dyes, takes time to build up depth.

[Pat B]

Tru-Oil is comparable with Fiebings leather dye.

[Eric Krewson]

One way I make stains look different is to put a thick coat of stain on a bow, let it dry and lighten the areas I want lighter by scrubbing the area with a scotch bright pad. I used medium brown for this bow and scrubbed the lighter areas.

[Eric Krewson]

As far as blending one color into another color you can put the different stains side by side and use a fan brush to scrub between the two and they will blend seamlessly into each other.

Here is an explanation of sorts on a much larger medium with a plain brush.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6jTEXQjI5s

I was a duck decoy carver once and had to learn the correct brush strokes to make my ducks paint job look real. This is the belly of a shore bird that I used a fan brush to transition the yellow color to white.

[bentstick54]

Thanks Eric, I really like the look of that bow. I will definitely play around with that method.

[Pat B]

There is a difference between Fiebings dye and stain. The dye will dry in a matter of a few minutes, the stain takes a while. The stain is used for an antiquing effect going in low spots and mostly removed from the high spots. I'm not sure if Eric mistakenly used stain instead of dye but that needs clarification. Eric has done beautiful decorations on his bows and his methods can be helpful to others just getting into this crazy addiction of ours.

[Eric Krewson]

I do use dye almost 100% of the time  to "stain" the wood on bows, just a play on words. The exception is when I use dye from walnut hulls to stain arrows or match repairs to the wood on a walnut stocked B/P rifle.



 The other exception is when I use a nitric acid solution called aqufortis to stain maple gun stocks, the results are quite striking. To use aqufortis one paints it on a stock, let it dry and go over the wood with a heat gun to "blush" the the wood. Heat makes aqufortis react with the tannin in wood to bring out the final color.



It adds a pretty, deep brown color to hickory



One time I thought "aqufortis makes maple look incredible, I wonder what it will do to osage". It was big disappointment, it turned osage as black as coal.

[bentstick54]

Thanks Pat and Eric. I’m hoping on finding some time between cleaning up leaves in the yard, sneaking in a little time in the deer woods, and doctor appointments to play around with staining a bow I’m trying to finish up.