"Mike Marlow" wrote...

Are you sure it was Mexico and not the state of Pennsylvania?

Hah! Over my way Penndot has the state highway all tore up, and our New
Yorker immigrants have knocked out half the little one-lane stone bridges
over the local creeks: it's getting hard to get anywhere around here. Took
'em years, and the exit of the idiot former head of Penndot, just to replace
the Dark Hollow bridge.


Asphaltum is available in one gallon cans from Hood Finishing. I really
like it over aniline dye. For example, Moser's Bright Golden Orange dye
looks pretty silly when you first apply it, but let it dry and then apply
thinned asphaltum, and it takes on a deep rich reddish brown hue, looking
very vintage, but with incredible depth; definately not bright orange
anymore!

Asphaltum can be thinned with paint thinner or naphtha. It looks like black
tar in the can, but thins to a rich warm brown.


ALso, the guitar in the pic does not have any asphaltum in the finish. It
is definately black aniline dye. Aniline dye really pops the grain on curly
maple like that, and is available in a wide range of bright colors, as well
as traditional wood tones. I've had good results using Mosers water-based
aniline dye from Woodworker's Supply.

Basically, the darkness of tone is achieved by the strength of the mixture -
add more dye powder to the mix for darker, less for lighter. Wash the wood
with a wet cloth and let dry, then final sand, to raise the grain and sand
it flush again before applying the dye. Flood the wood with the dye, then
wipe off the excess. You want the dye to soak into the wood, as opposed to
sitting on the surface of the wood like stain.


--
Timothy Juvenal
www.tjwoodworking.com