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Tints and or dyes

The Danish Oil products that I am familiar with (Watco) are not really oil finishes in the truest sense of the word, but rather they are varnishes that are thinned and have an extra amount of linseed oil. With Watco products, I have their full range of finishes and mix them to obtain the exact color that I want. Personally, I would not try using any kind of pigment stain with an oil finish because I think that it would make the wood have a muddy appearance. I also would not be interested in using a dye stain with an oil finish because the dye color would be dulled by the oil. I am not familiar with Liberon. What effect are you wanting to achieve?
 
Dyes are your best choice. Alcohol or water-based are only minimally affected by oil finishes, or, perhaps we should say "oil-based"😉. So any of the aniline types become a possibility. You don't mix them with the oil, of course, rather apply them to the piece and finish afterward.

I consider pigment stains, the kind most normally associated with flat woodworking, to be unsuited to turnings. They're dust suspended in oil, and give an entirely weird-looking result. If you're looking to hide the wood, tempera color is a good option.

I'd lacquer or shellac over dyes. The amber color of most oils will change the non earth tone shades unpredictably.
 
I've done several dyed objects using various dyes, Craft Supplies sells pre-mixed and powdered aniline dyes (water & alcohol soluble.) I have also used water soluble fabric dye - they take a 'long' time to dry - so I'm sticking to the alcohol soluble ones from now on.
After turning a couple of art pieces (Jimmy Clewes course & video) he recommended using a "Sharp" black pen around the boarder. With lacquer, shellac and waterlox, I've had no issues. With the Liberon Finishing Oil, just the black boarder where I used the sharp won't dry correctly - after two weeks, it's still tacky. The coloured areas dried nicely and didn't run. I'm going to have to remove the finish on the edges and I plan on using the black dye applied with either an air or paint brush for the edge.
Sad to say, I ignored the "test on a scrap piece first" and have extra work now.
 
Has anyone tried using fabric (Rit) dyes with alcohol rather than water? Certainly not what the manufacturer recommends but should be faster drying.
Rick Taylor
 
Rick,
You beat me to the question. And since we sometimes use DNA to dilute epoxy for filling small cracks/defects, could we dissolve the Rit in the DNA used to dilute the epoxy, and get a fairly solid color? On my list of things to try.
 
I have not used the RIT dyes, but I have tried Jacquard Silk Colors (Green Label) that I got from Dharma Trading (dharmatrading.com.) which are water based (and slow to dry in humid weather.) Colors were very nice, and one of the turners in our club said that the water-based dyes don't fade as much as the alcohol dyes do over time.
I have not gotten around to trying their alcohol based dyes (the Pinata colors,) yet, but will probably try them some time in the future. They have some other powered dye for mixing with water, but I was going to check them out as well and try mixing with alcohol (alcohol and water do mix.)

Good luck!😀
 
I have used artist paints to tint Deft gloss and satin finish on a couple of projects. I had no finish problems or issues.

Walt
 
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