General Finishes Water Based Dye, 1 Quart, Medium Brown

I needed a uniform stain for hard-to-stain hard maple. Hard maple is notoriously difficult to stain. So, I tried this and this relates my experience. Prior to staining, I did a test on some maple scrap planks. I had 5 pieces and 3 of them were shellacked. I tested the light brown and medium brown stains on the non-shellacked boards first. The light brown stained piece looked a yellowish brown, very plain. The medium brown looked black and sooty. The next day, the shellacked boards were tested and their colors were similar although a bit lighter and the dye-stain could be wiped off with a Bounty. I mixed together the light brown and the medium brown and tested it on a shellacked board and it still looked the same as if only using the medium brown dye-stain, that is sooty-looking.The actual work pieces were large spinning wheel bobbins turned and sanded on my lathe. They were up to 3" in diameter made from multiple sheets of 4/4 maple glued up. Surface preparation was sanding up to 400 grit. They looked very smooth and polished. I applied the light brown dye-stain with a foam brush after vigorously shaking the closed can. The dye-stain dried in a minute or so. They looked terribly blotchy with accentuation of sanding marks and the interfaces between the glued-up pieces. The color was a dark brown. They did not at all appear anything like the test samples. My initial impression was severe disappointment. But wait:The next morning, they were fully dry, so I could handle them without gloves (and the dye-stain is a bit rough on nitrile gloves). They felt very rough. Since this is a water-based dye-stain, which would be expected to raise the grain, I sanded them with 220 paper. The color became a lighter brown, quite uniform, smooth and there was about an 80% improvement to their appearance. Because of the much lighter brown color, I restained them. This stuff dries in 2 hours and then they were rough again, but not as rough as after the first application. I sanded them lightly again with a resultant darker brown appearance that was not very uniform. Then I sprayed them with clear Zinsser shellac. The immediate result was that they looked suddenly and surprisingly almost awesome (I don't want to exaggerate). Since then, I applied so-called water-based polyurethane (actually it's acrylic) and then oil-based polyurethane and the pieces still look gorgeous.Compared to the Varathane Classic oil-based stains that I usually use, this dye-stain was more difficult and unpredictable. The results from test pieces didn't duplicate my results. Sometimes I can reuse nitrile gloves but although the dye washed off of them, they developed small holes or were sticky the next day. Foam brushes are hard to clean and I'm not sure they'll be able to be reused. But, I have never experienced such phenomenally excellent staining results on hard maple before and I plan to use this dye-stain again.[I also bought some orange and the thinner but have not opened them. Relative to the easily available oil-stains, these are much more expensive.]

Perfect of Maple wood or other hard to stain woods. Easy to work with. Perfect color match.

This is a test of using the product before I commit to using this on a coffee table. I am making this for a friend who wanted a dark/black table top.I wanted to use walnut since I have many board feet available.First picture is walnut and a middle piece of maple.Second picture is after a single coat of the dye/stain.Third picture is after a couple of coats of Minwax wipe-on-poly over the test piece.The product is water based. I did not wet the board before applying the dye/stain, my mistake. I was able to sand afterwards without removing too much of the colour, but when I use this on the final project, I will pre-wet once or twice with light water spray, then sand off the raised grain before applying the product.I was impressed with the depth of colour, but happy some of the grain still shows through.

It is a water-based dye. It soaks into your wood project. Keep the loaded brush moving while applying. Be intentional about your application strokes. Stay with the grain. Foam brush or bristle brush - keep moving throughout the stroke. There is NO spreading out a heavy spot. Happy news: The color becomes more intense and has depth the more applications. Stop and check how deep do you want the color intensity. I used a flashlight on my project when it was indoors and made changes as desired. The pictured dresser ended up with about 5 coats (could be 6 or 7 because I don't remember) I used a NON YELLOWING spar urethane clear satin topcoat. By the way, the picture of the top of the dresser was not yet sanded for the picture, so you are seeing raised wood grain which was lightly sanded and wiped before each additional dye application. This is my 2nd project using this blue dye.