Rollie is the Man! (Oh, and notes on coloring wood)

10 Feb, 2021

I have the good fortune of living on the sunny side of the Bay Area in California.  Beyond the incredibly pleasant weather we get here ⅞ of the year, access to incredible natural resources like the beach, the Sierra, wine country & more, my favorite thing is the people.  Folks here are like folks anywhere in most ways, but there is something else.  Maybe it is some kind of residual from the gold rush, “the big one” in 1906, the civil rights movement, hippies, the dot com bubble or countless other events and movements where the bold and their hangers on would find new and interesting ways to “live off the fat of the land” – often changing the world in the process.  Anyway, folks here tend to be passionate, unapologetically themselves, and to organize well.  

The most recent example of this final characteristic I discovered is an organization called the BayAreaWoodworkers.  My first meeting was the third Sunday in January and the featured speaker was Rollie Johnson, a long time contributing editor to FineWoodWorking magazine.  The topic was coloring wood.  I was admittedly a bit skeptical going in because the topic seemed esoteric and could have been a total snoozer, but hot damn, this was an eye opening, inspiring, and a downright informative 90 minutes of my life.  Overall, Rollie is an incredibly knowledgeable professional, very passionate, and has more experience in his little finger than I’m likely to ever accumulate.  He was also incredibly warm and accessible – I sent a thank you note with a clarifying question and got a response from him personally the next day.

Here are my take-aways on the more technical aspects of the talk:

• General Finishes brand is his choice for pro quality finishing applications.
• It is possible, and fairly common, to dye wood (vs staining):
  • Dyeing is the result of microscopic pigmented particles that penetrate the wood.
  • Staining is more superficial, larger pigment particles stick to surface features (like pores or sanding scuffs) and require a binding agent (like varnish).
• The absorption of color from either can be tempered if the surface is pre-treated with a sealant.  Rollie Suggested two:
  • Hide glue, or rabbit glue both fairly diluted compared to what you would use to bond components of a piece of furniture.  These choices work better with dye because they are fairly porous allowing the pigment to penetrate.
  • Shellac works best under stain on ring-porous or soft woods.
• Pre-treating is also a great way to mitigate blotchiness common in some woods due to variable grain/pore density within a single board.
• There are two common types of dye:
  • Aniline Dye – pigments traditionally from berries and such, are now synthetically derived and dissolved in water.
  • Reactive Dye – these react with chemicals (generally tanic acid) in the wood. Tthe most common example of this is Ferrous Acetate which can be made incredibly cheaply and safely at home.  It will permanently color most wood a silver/gray to jet black depending on concentration and number of applications.  This is commonly called “ebonizing” and is super fun, I’ve started using it.

You can get a little more detail and a different perspective by reading the published meetings notes.  A few other (non color related) nuggets he mentioned in passing:

• Paint thinner, while similar to mineral spirits is better because it is more highly refined.  Rollie uses it to wipe down pieces prior to finishing to reveal any surface imperfections.  He also carefully notes what and where they are so he can find them after the spirits dry.
• You can remove dried PVA glue (i.e. Titebond-Type1) from the surface of wood using vinegar.  Soak a paper towel or rag in vinegar, let it soak into the area for 20 min or so and scrape/wipe it clean. 

If you are local to the Bay (or remote in these days of virtual meetings) check out BAWA under the link above, the meetings are the Third Sunday of each month at 6p Pacific.