Can you make stain from wood oils?

Hi everyone,
I was recently given a bit of kingwood and have been playing around scraping it smooth to see what bits i want to use for what projects.

Last night i accidentally spilled a bit of metho on some of my scrapings and sawdust and was shocked to find it turned a really deep purple/plum colour from the oils in the wood. I'm just wondering now whether it might be possible to mix up some more of it or to make other coloured stains using metho and sawdust from different woods and whether it'd hold up over time?
Or is it likely to just turn brown/fade away to nothing?

Perhaps if i mixed in some shellac to create a tinted polish it might make it a bit longer lasting?

It will make an interesting project. One of the most common stains was Vandyke crystals made from boiling walnut shells.

From Everything in blue below is from "A Polishers Handbook"

Some of the old dyes still available and in use today are Logwood, Yellowood, Brazilwood, Walnut Crystals, Cochineal and Madder Root. Many of these are no longer available in their original form, but can be more conveniently purchased as an extract or in a crystal form.

WALNUT CRYSTALS or Cassel Extract - is the modern version of the old Walnut brew or brou de niox and is a walnut brown dye.

WALNUT BREW (Brou de noix) This is made from the outer skin which initially envelopes the walnut. This green skin if left on the ground to dry will gradually turn brown then black. Fill a three to four gallon earthenware crock or enamelled pan with the black skins, cover them with water, add one (1) tablespoon of caustic soda. Put the lid on and cook over a slow heat for three days. Do not let the mix boil. After three days strain through a linen cloth and bottle. This will provide you with a few years supply of rich penetrating walnut stain.

Many years ago we used to make a cleaning/wax cream that had a soft pink colour that colour was obtained by adding a piece of mahogany 1" x 1" x 4" into the mix as it was heating and melting the waxes.

Osage orange dust when washed off your skin with soap will go a deep green colour and ladies from a local spinning group used to get the shavings to dye their wool a light olive colour.

Many timbers can have their colours changed by putting Mordants on them - Not all mordants are good for your health and need to be used with extreme caution.

The following is a list of the most frequently used mordants:

potassium bichromate tin (stannous chloride) - copper sulphate ferrous sulphate
alum tannic acid - sulphuric acid (vitriol) - muriatic acid
acetic acid (vinegar) - pyrogalic acid - cream of tartar - Glauber's salt

EG
POTASSIUM BICHROMATE (bichromate of potash) - is probably the most common chemical treatment for timber.

This chemical comes in a bright orange crystal form and is dissolved in hot water, then applied to the timber. If applied to mahogany the timber takes on a magnificent, rich, burgundy-brown colour.

This is the treatment that gave the Empire furniture of Napoleonic France its beautiful colouring. Australian Cedar takes on a similar colour to the mahogany. Philippine Cedar (Kalantis) which is normally a soft pink also takes on the same colouring.

Add potassium bichromate to Vandyke Crystals and it will produce a dark reddish brown on Mahogany and Oak.

There are many many other factors to dying and making your own dyes but often it's cheaper and much, much more viable to buy your stains and dyes off the shelf. At least you know you will get the same colour every time and that there are no dangerous chemicals etc to deal with. And by dangerous, I mean, some of them can kill you.

Hope this is of come help and interest.

There are lots of recipes dor dyes etc in the book "A Polishers Handbook" if you decide you might like to mess around with this and other fascinating stuff.

Cheers - Neil :U

WOW! Thanks so much for the great post Neil!

I've noticed using tallowwood, that it turns my skin a blackish purple colour. It reacts to the acid in my sweat. I tried putting a bit of sulphuric acid on a piece of the wood and instantly it was solid blackish purple. I've been wondering if you used a very weak acid could you make a wood stain with it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by steamjunkprops

I've noticed using tallowwood, that it turns my skin a blackish purple colour. It reacts to the acid in my sweat. I tried putting a bit of sulphuric acid on a piece of the wood and instantly it was solid blackish purple. I've been wondering if you used a very weak acid could you make a wood stain with it.

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I don't suppose you've got any pictures to show this amazing sounding reaction? i'm constantly crushing the balance of my bank account buying up purple blackish exotics, so a cheaper alternative would be a nice change! :)

The greater puzzle always was and always will be to make dyes which are light-fast. Organic, biologic-based, dyes and stains absorb light. What you see is the wavelengths of light that the dye/stain cannot absorb.
Plants, chlorophyll, use red and blue light for photosynthesis. The chloroplasts can't use the intermediate energy level of green (540nm) light so they reflect that = they look green.

Nothing quite like a really good UV sunburn to teach the energy quality of different light wavelengths, yes?

Mineral stains (iron+vinegar = iron acetate) were popular with high-tannin woods for their simple durability in light.

Harris tweeds were once lichen dyes set with sheep urine (ammonia) but the damp smell put a lot of people off, the colors faded and the lichen supply did not grow to meet the demand.

Why colors fade. The dye molecules absorb some wavelengths of light but reflect others = that's the color we see.
Unlike the process of photosynthesis, there isn't any way to hand off the absorbed energy to anybody else.
So, POW! the added energy makes the pigment molecule explode. Broken, it has lost it's selective light reflecting ability.

I have other bed time stories fully supported by the mundane rubbish of biochemistry. Let me tell you about the lady who had her optic nerve connected to her anal sphincter. Gave her a dreadful $$$hirty outlook on life.
Good night, my (hopefully) friends.