Staining

Posted by Lloyd on Dec 20, 2004

The stain idea came to me when I bought Ted Moores� new book �Kayaks You Can Build.�

One boat, a Pygmy Coho, is finished with a green stained deck.

The CLC, a Mill Creek, is treated with a "premixed rosewood color dye."

Is a dye different than a stain?

These are beatiful. The book is a masterpiece too.

In the remainder of this message is describe what I think I understand of Ted Moores book, inserting some questions (You can find the questions by searching for a question mark �?�) , and see if some other points surface from you forum participants.

I. The staining must be done before any epoxy is applied.

II. Water or alcohol-soluble dyes must be used. Oil and epoxy don�t mix. Moores mentions Aniline dyes.

?Are Aniline dyes a standard dye available at wood working stores?

?Has anyone used Minwax products. Minwax has a water based stain decribed as an interior stain.

III. The surface must be prepared carefully and a grain raising step is suggested where the grain is raised by sponging with a little warm water. Following that a sanding is done with 220 grit sanding across the grain. Finally this surface is vacuumed.

IV. The Moores takes another grain raising step (Here I wasn�t certain if this was in addition to Step III above). In this current step he applies a weak solution of the dye (50/50), then sands across the grain. He repeats here that it is important to keep a wet edge and to keep moving to avoid any puddles which change the intensity of the stain effect. Again he vacuums, using a brush attachment.

V. Then a full strength dye is applied and again he counsels that one must watch carefully to avoid an variation in the application.

VI. Following the full strength dye he allowed the panel to dry for twenty-four hours then lightly rubbed it down with a fine Scotchbrite pad.

VII. Now comes the epoxy as a sealer. He used one coat of sealer, but suggest two could be used.

?Does this sealing step cause a problem by making the panels too stiff and thus increasing the difficulty of the stitching step?

VII. All of the above happens before the deck panels are joined, later they are stitched together, and after that the deck is fiber glassed.

?When the deck is fiber glassed later the panels will require sanding for the epoxy/fiber glass to adhere, correct? Moores may spell that out but I haven�t found it yet.

This is a big book.

I am especially concerned that the sealing with epoxy will stiffen panel too much for the bending required with assembly.

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