Varnish with amber coloring

[Howie]

I know there are several marine varnish products out there... But over the years I've only ever used Epifanes and TotalBoat's Gleam. Now I'm looking for one with the deepest amber color. You see I have a terrible time staining ash - I'm never very happy with how my stain coloring comes out. So I'm thinking why not help myself out by trying a varnish from another manufacturer which has a deeper amber coloring than what I normally use.

Any thoughts??

 

[dtdcanoes]

Howie, I feel your pain. With your perspective maybe the best course at least to begin with might be to stay with the Epi product and go for trials on the same wood you are dealing with . Prep the sample pieces as you will in the boat right up to the time you start the process after drying the oil raw or boiled. I don't think you will find enough variation of amber tone in the varnishes unless you move to the tinted product and they can be unpredictable. I would visit an art supply and look at the Grumbacher line of pigments. They will have a burnt sienna and other components of the amber tone that you can mix for your trials . You should be able to get very close to just what you want. It can be tedious and not for everyone but very nice to see a new rib or a six foot plank almost indistinguishable from the others. Have fun.
Dave

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

Staining wood doesn't usually look much like ambered varnish. It tends to have too much color variation due to differences in woodgrain. There are some excellent products made for changing the color of clear finishes on musical instruments, which yield better results than wood stain mixed with varnish.

ColorTone Liquid Stains - StewMac

ColorTone Liquid Stains mix into most finishes and deliver hues that highlight wood grain on guitars, amps, and more. Backed by our Lifetime Promise.

www.stewmac.com

 

[Dan Miller]

I'm pretty sure the Stewmac dyes are relabelled TransTint, which is my go-to for these situations.

TransTint® Professional Wood Dyes - General Finishes

Shop TransTint® Professional Wood Dyes, General Finishes. Achieve clarity and depth, mixed with water, alcohol, or finishes for color control.

transtintdyes.com

 

[Dave Osborn]

I’ve used Trans Tint and Minwax stains together but separately. Don’t remember the specific dye color I was using, but it was really yellow on spruce and ash. I would then go over it with a Minwax color, likely Golden Oak. I think it may be what you are trying to achieve, Howie.

 

[Howie]

think it may be what you are trying to achieve, Howie.

Well, I'd like to more closely match the outer rails, and they're sort of a cherry color .

I used ash for the seats, and cherry minwax stain isn't dark enough and a little red. I'll try some oak stain and see what happens. But seems like the wood gets saturated and doesn't accept stain any more.

Thanks!

 

[dtdcanoes]

Howie, that's why I always oil first because the new wood will always soak up the stain and you have lost control. Do all your work on a sample piece of the exact wood and the side that matches the grain of the replacement . and the sanded surface should be at the same level of the new new part. Matching old wood is artistic, custom and tedious stuff , for sure. Maybe another Jamison or something.
Dave

 

[patrick corry]

For these two Ash seats, recently caned to the 6th step, prior to caning I stained each frame with one coat of Minwax Puritan Pine; brushed on and wiped off immediately. No prior prep such as oil or conditioner. The frames each then received one wipe coat of 50/50 thinned Man O War satin spar varnish. I imagine that once fully varnished, the amber will increase and, to my eye, come close to your rails.

 

[Howie]

to my eye, come close to your rails.

I agree... the looks great. And the caning looks great too!

 

[charvey]

Been happy with Transtint on cedar for nearly twenty years. Recently started experimenting with General Finishes gel stain on hardwood and love this stuff. Deep coloring.

 

[Howie]

one coat of Minwax Puritan Pine

Patrick: I can't find any reference to 'Puritan Pine'. Any chance you used 'Ipswitch Pine' instead?

 

[patrick corry]

Howie, my can of Puritan Pine stain is probably 20+ years old or more! It's not one I ever used much and I now realize that it may be discontinued. The internet is unreliable for searching because plenty of hits make it appear to be current. Here's a random old piece of pine with several Minwax colors for comparison. I realize that Ash and Pine will take color differently but it's a start. Ipswich Pine is lighter here, but maybe you could add a little walnut to darken it a bit. For many years I used gallons of Early American with a 1/2 pt can of Red Mahogany added to it for floor staining jobs and furniture; Minwax stains are easy to modify by adding other colors.

Ebay has a lot of it available, but at ridiculous prices- at least from my cheapskate point of view!

 

[Howie]

Since we're on the subject... Can you mix a 'small' amount of oil-based stain (like Minwax) with Tung oil based marine varnish? I mean, they're both oil based...

 

[Dave Osborn]

Thread 'Can you mix stain with varnish?'

Jun 14, 2024

Can I mix TotalBoat Gleam varnish (a "classic Tung oil marine spar varnish with high solids content) with Minwax stain products (a "penetrating oil-based wood stain"). I believe Morris & Veazie (as well as PennYan) used tinted varnish. I'm in the process of stripping a Veazie and want a lighter version of the color it had before I stripped.

• Howie
• Replies: 11
• Forum: Wood and Canvas

 

[Howie]

Ha! So im thinking my great ideas never die... even if I forget about them!
So I'm trying to stain ash. And i always seem to have trouble with ash. I thought i was close on the color but when I brought it into the light (I was staining in my basement - its 6deg out!) the color match wasn't so good. So i was musing about mixing stain & varnish again.
However, after experimenting some more im finding Minwax Golden Oak (like someone above recommended) seems to be a good match. We'll see when I wipe & let it dry bit.

 

[MGC]

What I do not like about using stains on a wood like ash (or oak) is that the pigment tends to fill the open grain and announce its presence. The Min Wax stains (which I do use) tend to do this. For that reason, I like to pretreat the wood before I use the stains to keep the pigments from pooling in the open grain pockets.

 

[Dave Osborn]

Howie,
I’m assuming that you are staining freshly milled ash….
I feel your pain. It’s damn hard to make new ash match vintage patina. Same with Sitka.
I do think a stain pre-treatment helps.

 

[Howie]

Hmmm. Seems to me the pretreatment stuff i bought a while back said "for interior use" so I never used it.