Philly":25e08d0s said:
HI Folks
I'm after a stain to give me that classic Gibson cherry red mahogany colour.
... any advice/experience with products available in the UK.
Philly
Experiment with a base colour of red aniline dye, probably full strength. You could use either water based or a range of solvent based dyes (eg, spirit, pre-cat base stains, etc) as all should give that very vibrant colour.
Follow this with coats of sprayed lacquer tinted with a compatible dye, eg, add about 20-40 ml of spirit aniline dye (or pre-cat dye) to about a litre of post-catalysed or pre-catalysed lacquer. In both cases go for gloss or 90% sheen, and you might need to rub the polish out to get the very high gloss. You are limited to a dry film thickness of less than 150 microns with these polishes to avoid cracking. This means applying two wet coats of about 150 microns each, or three at about 100 microns each to allow for the requisite final cured film thickness of 150 microns or less after solvent evaporation.
This seems about right as you can still just about make out that the background woodgrain, which in the photograph you put up looks like it might be maple or some other white wood.
Just about any of the major manufacturers or the retailers that carry the products should be able to supply what you need, eg, Morrells, Fiddes, Smith and Roger, Rydenor, etc. Slainte.
