# Wood dye on birch ply



## mark84 (7 Mar 2014)

Hi,
I've heard birch ply can be difficult to stain a darker shade- but I've been told I can get away with Colron or Blackfriar as they're both wood dye's and don't seep into the wood so deeply and thus avoid any blotchiness!
Can anyone confirm this is a decent way to go?
Cheers,
Mark.


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## marcros (7 Mar 2014)

dye is like a solution of coffee- make a cup of black coffee, and you cannot separate the water from the coloured part.
Stain, should be, more like a paint- there is a pigment part suspended in a liquid. The pigment covers over grain etc to a degree. 

There are some products that confuse the issue, by mis-naming themselves (dyes that are really stains).

I would imagine that a dye would be more likely to go blotchy. I would put a seal coat on first, of shellac. And stain/dye over the top.


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## mark84 (7 Mar 2014)

Thanks for the reply, funnily enough I thought the same thing about the dye encouraging blotchy parts - but forums all over the next I see dye getting recommendations- could it be the way the dye is used, perhaps very sparingly over the surface?


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## marcros (7 Mar 2014)

i have done little bit of dyeing but only on solid timber. I used waterbased and flooded it on. not sure if that was correct, but looking at transtint dye on youtube that is how they did it, so i followed suit.


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## mark84 (7 Mar 2014)

Ok, is it ok to apply water based products over shellac (stain/dye and polyurethane over that)?
Thanks again for reply.


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