I’m trying to darken the color of African Mahogany to even out some of the contrast between the golden areas and the darker brown. I’d like to get a deep red finish with some gold showing thru. Pigmented stain (red mahogany) darkened the brown areas almost black and Medium brown Trans-tint dye diluted in DNA left dark rings around the pores after it dried but looked perfect while wet. Does anyone know how to avoid the dark circles? Would mixing the dye with distilled water work better than the alcohol? I ended up sealing with a wash coat of de-waxed shellac, filling pores with dark grain filler and topping with tinted shellac but so far not getting quite what I’m looking for.
I guess the main question is does anyone know how to avoid the dark circles around the pores (I don’t have spray equipment)?
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What has happened is that there is a bleed back of dye from the pores that has occurred after the surface dye has dried. Alcohol as a solvent is hard to apply by hand because it dries so quickly. This is one of the problems, the other is streaking where wet dye goes over a dyed surface that has dried.
Before you apply a top coat the dye remains soluble. You can wipe down the surface with water to keep these rings from drying and to remove them. You may remove some of the color when you do this, but you can add another dye coat to add back color, or even wipe the surface down with a dilute dye.
When applying dye by hand I find mixing in water is best since the water dries slowly enough that you can flood the entire surface and then remove excess with a sponge. TransTint concentrate mixes with water and alcohol and will still dissolve in both when on the surface. Water soluble powdered dyes are much less soluble in alcohol, which can be an advantage if you are wiping on a shellac finish and would be my choice for applying by hand.
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