Finishing plywood

[vareynick]

Hi there, New to the forum (and woodworking), so be gentle


I am building a scrabble set! I have had the pieces cut in birch plywood, with engraving and rastering details on both the board and pieces.

Birch plywood is light in colour, and I am looking to dye the wood to a darker colour, perhaps something similar to cherry. I however also want the engraved and rastered areas to be painted white.

I found this helpful tutorial online, but i am unable to share links

It basically was a process of painting over the wood, then sanding away the excess paint, leaving only paint in the engraved/rastered lines.

My question is this: would this technique work on dyed wood? Would I still need to use a sealer?

If this is no good, how would you fine folks recommend me to do this?

Thanks in advance,

Nick

 

[Chrispy]

Hi Nick
I think if you stained the wood then sealed it with a varnish or lacquer very well then you could paint the detail and just wipe any over spill off the surface before it dries.

Best do a few tests first..

 

[vareynick]

Thanks Chrispy!

Much appreciated. Do you think any paint type will work, or should I use the special infill paint?

This is an Xmas pressie, so I'll share some photos of the finished board when it's done

 

[Chrispy]

I don't know of the paint you refer to but you need one that will wipe off without biting into the sealer/lacquer that you use. a water based paint would be a good starting point for testing.

 

[vareynick]

OK, so I wanted to provide a little update to this. I did some experiments with paint, and the results were not great. The paint failed to fill the spaces adequately, and dried with bubbles.

A friend of mine suggested good old fashioned grout - and it worked wonderfully! If others are looking to fill thin engraved lines and small text in a wood that is fairly rigid, i cannot recommend it more highly.