Earth Pigments - Lee Valley

[Rick]

Has anybody used these for staining or for any of the other uses described below - they're said to be the most light-fast of all stains and might be better than the aniline dyes usually recommended. The tones might also be more suitable for wooden boats since they are made from naturally-occuring substances.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx ... ,190,42996

Thanks!

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Rick,
I'm surprised that nobody responded to this.
I've never seen these before.
It sounds like you would have to mix them in with your resin, but I'm not sure about that.
If so, it seems to me that it they wouldn't have a big effect on the grain of the wood, but act more like an overall tint.

[Bayport_Bob]

I'm not familiar with the product, but if there's one resource for expert wood finishing advice, I would go to:

http://www.homesteadfinishing.com/phpBB2/portal.php

Home of Homestead Finishing: http://www.homesteadfinishing.com/index.htm

Jeff Jewitt has written a couple of well received wood finishing books and will give you excellent advice.

[Rick]

Hi, Dean,

Yeah, mixing with epoxy was one use that I thought might be possible. Keeping the tint uniform from batch to batch might be a problem, unless there are precise amounts weighed out beforehand for each batch.

I went ahead and bought the set - the colors are more natural when mixed with white paint than the commercial marine enamels which often have an industrial-grade look to them. I'll probably be painting the outside of my Huron with something more durable than varnish and don't want to go with black graphite ( the varnish scratching from last year's use is just terrible) and I like the traditional color schemes of cedar/canvas canoes, so I'm experimenting with various combinations to see what matches the inside cedar tones best.

There's also the possiblity of adding these to varnish and using them water-based to stain cedar strips, but I haven't tried these other uses yet.