I'm wanting to dye some curly maple scales to match the color of the scales in the picture of this Winkler axe (photo by bladehq). I have a beltknife II, and I'm wanting my axe to somewhat match it. I'll be making them from scratch (first time). I've also never worked with wood before, or shaped any scales.

I've tried searching , but, I can't find info on how to make it as dark as the ones in the picture. I've read that maple can be difficult to dye compared to other woods. Some dark dye turns it pink?

Can someone point me in the right direction please?

I love the rich dark curly maple look (not a fan of light colors), but, I'm still looking into what wood I'd like to use.  Seems like this maple is turning out to be one of the most difficult ones, am I wrong?







ETA:

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Choose figured sapele or a figured walnut if you want dark.

Those are nice! I'm going to look into to that, thanks

I make furniture from maple. Mainly live edge natural tables.

It will darken considerably once a protective finish is applied, varying in darkness depending on the finish used.

Something like shellac is very light in color, while oil or oil/varnish/BLO can darken the piece quite a bit if you put on several coats. Commercial poly finishes such as Minwax or Arm-R-Seal are going to give a warm, honey look.

If you want an original 'colonial America look', you can order some bee's wax and melt it together with ground walnut hulls. That or just melt the wax with a commercial stain of your choosing. These types of finishes are protective, but are not exceptionally durable for the long haul and will need to be reapplied sooner than other methods. Many people like them however because they don't look or feel plasticky.

Incidentally, you can buy kiln dried pieces of just about any type of wood from a woodworking store. They sell some really cool, exotic looking stuff too.

I used to be the finisher for Paul Reed Smith guitars. You can use aniline dyes but make sure you find a UV resistant version. Feibing's leather dyes work but may fade with UV exposure. If you really want to make the figure pop, layer dye. Take a dark dye like dark brown or black and stain the wood first, then sand the wood out so only the deep grain retains the dark color and then stain again with the lighter shade. Only the deep grain should retain the dark. Seal with some cut, dewaxed shellac then finish with some oil or poly or wax or epoxy resin, whatever your preference

Sapele (quarter sawn) no dye.  Not the color you are looking for



Walnut (burl) no dye.  Not the color you are looking for



Curly Maple no dye.  Not the color you are looking for




that looks like a dark walnut stain though.  MinWax # 2716 I think off the top of my head.  

Don't normally stain wood anymore but if I had to I'd use General Finishes stain.  Still, looks like a dark walnut tint though.  

And staining maple isn't a big deal.  Rub on the stain and wipe it right off.  Repeat as necessary until it is as dark as you are looking for.

Since I wasn't getting much feedback on here, I did an extensive search for a little while in multiple forums.  

Basically, came up with Aqua Fortis (which is an old school method made specifically for maple).

Also, going to try mahogany Fiebings leather dye. I'm going to try out a few samples and see how that works. I'm going for a matte finish, so I'll probably use BLO.

Thanks for the replies !

Fiebings dye. I've also had great results with Sharpies, believe it or not. The thin dye really penetrates and makes the grain stand out.

Bump. Ended up using Aquafortis and BLO. I had some mahogany fieblings dye but couldn't get the color ratio right in conjunction with the Aquafortis. It came out pretty dark with the BLO.

I think they use Chestnut Ridge stock stain on their hawks and knives.