How To Dye Bamboo?...ANSWER ON PAGE 2!!!

[Pat B]

Bob, Tru-Oil does cure out with a slight amber tint. Nothing that will take away from the beauty of the skins, at least IMO

[Bob Barnes]

thanks!  I did 3 skin jobs this weekend and I'm waiting on a big bottle of tru oil to try it...all I have ever used is poly...
Bob

[Sam Harper]

I used to use tru oil to finish my bows.  I stopped using it because I never could get through an entire bottle before it started to coagulate.

[Sam Harper]

Also, it wouldn't dry on some woods, like bocote, ipe, cocobola, or anything oily.

[Bob Barnes]

maybe with 3 bows with new snakeskin backs I will use most of it before it dries out...but one of them is Ipe so I may have problems with that...
Bob

[snakewood3]

Use thin CA on the Ipe prior to Tru Oil and it will work fine.

[M60gunner]

We use a toner to darken the bamboo fly rods we make.The toner can be had from:  http://www.fultzrods.com   Only downside is it only penatrates about .001 of an inch. So put on a couple of coats of finish before you sand out. We also use Tru-oil as a finish as it goes on easy and can be coated agian in a few hours. Do not use on any silk thread decorations as it turns the thread dark.

[Pat B]

Bob and Sam, I pour a small amount out of the original bottle and into a small container and seal it back up, then store it up side down. This will help keep it from coagulating to quickly.
 I also only buy the 3oz bottles. I bought a bigger one once and ended up throwing most of it away because it began to coagulate. I can finish 6 or 8 bows out of a small bottle with 5 to 6 coats.

[Bob Barnes]

I have used quite a bit out of an 8 oz bottle today...4 good coats on 3 new skinned backs... I plan to let them dry a day and then sand them with some very fine paper or 0000 steel wool to remove any remaining roughness before a final coat...or two.  I like it so far.  Two of the bows have canebrake skins so the scale pattern is large but the little diamondback seems to be easier to get smooth.
thanks!
-to get this back on the original subject... the best way to dye bamboo is to use leather dye.  dark in the grip and tip areas and another lighter color mid limb...after it sets a little a little rag with some denatured alcohol can be used to pull the dark towards the lighter color creating a blend.

[4est trekker]

I am editing some of James' video for a couple of buildalong tutorials he's doing.  I found out exactly how he does his fantastic bamboo dye jobs: he uses a mouth atomizer.  Very cool (and cheap!) little thing that you can see here:  

http://www.warmtips.com/20060405.htm