Refinishing Bailey plane handles

[LuptonM]

Does anyone know which shellac product would give a similar colour to the stanley beach handles?

I've got some liberon shellac flakes but they seem to be far too light coloured for this application

 

[Racers]

I use a brown indelible pen to colour the wood first, then wax.

Pete

 

[AndyT]

To match the original rosewood effect, I've done like Pete did - dye first, then clear finish. I like Vandyke crystals as the dye - you can make up a weak or strong mixture as you please, or repeat the applications to suit. Then a clear finish - I've used boiled linseed oil and also had good results with Tru-oil, which builds up a bit quicker and can give a higher gloss, if you want it.

 

[bugbear]

My (minor) variant on the die + clear approach is Colron stain + Danish Oil.

Not as glossy as the original would have been, but nicer to hold.

BugBear

 

[Racers]

I find the end grain goes much darker then the side grain using stain, and Danish oil dissolves the stain, hence the indelible pen.

Pete

 

[undergroundhunter]

When I did my 4 1/2 I used colron dye stain (American walnut, its what I had to hand) then blonde shellac over the top, looks nice feels food in the hand.

Matt

 

[sploo]

I find Fiebings leather dye to be excellent. A tiny drop in shellac (I've used the dark brown) gives a good tint to darken the wood. Once I have the tint I want I will sometimes add another couple of coats of clear shellac on top, as that seems to give a really nice "deep" shine.

You can also use the leather dye without shellac - just dilute in a little meths and use it to directly stain wood. I've done that with some of their brighter colours, and it works really well.

EDIT: I can't seem to get a link to a specific post to work, but on page 4 of this (new-rear-handles-totes-for-hand-planes-t94767-45.html) thread I have a post starting "The third coat of Danish Oil has" where I started to use dyed shellac on some handles (others were just getting Danish Oil).

Page 5 has a post with everything done - including several old handles that were scraped, sanded, and coated with dyed shellac.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

I find the end grain goes much darker then the side grain using stain, and Danish oil dissolves the stain, hence the indelible pen.

To reduce the uptake of dye or stain in end grain, whether in plane handles, table tops, or any other wood, you can apply a thinned coat of polish to it. Typical is shellac diluted somewhat with alcohol, usually something like 50%, brushed or ragged on to the end grain, left to dry and sanded back with a finer abrasive paper, e.g., 180 - 320 grit. This partially chokes up the end grain open pores of the vascular tissue making it less dye or stain absorbent when the colourant is applied to the whole piece. Some experimentation is usually required to work out the right balance of end grain sealing and sanding to achieve an even or consistent colour uptake across the whole surface of the wood.

Obviously this technique is more challenging to achieve in end grain that blends seamlessly into long grain (e.g., a bullnose moulding or rounded plane handle) than it is in end grain that is, for example, perpendicular to the long grain, e.g., a square ended panel or table top. Slainte.

 

[sploo]

I find the end grain goes much darker then the side grain using stain, and Danish oil dissolves the stain, hence the indelible pen.

To reduce the uptake of dye or stain in end grain, whether in plane handles, table tops, or any other wood, you can apply a thinned coat of polish to it. Typical is shellac diluted somewhat with alcohol, usually something like 50%, brushed or ragged on to the end grain, left to dry and sanded back with a finer abrasive paper, e.g., 180 - 320 grit. This partially chokes up the end grain open pores of the vascular tissue making it less dye or stain absorbent when the colourant is applied to the whole piece. Some experimentation is usually required to work out the right balance of end grain sealing and sanding to achieve an even or consistent colour uptake across the whole surface of the wood.

Obviously this technique is more challenging to achieve in end grain that blends seamlessly into long grain (e.g., a bullnose moulding or rounded plane handle) than it is in end grain that is, for example, perpendicular to the long grain, e.g., a square ended panel or table top. Slainte.

Interesting, and useful to know - thanks.

 

[custard]

I was told something interesting recently. We tend to assume that end grain stains darker because the grain "drinks" in the stain. The alternate theory says that accounts for some of the darkening, but the majority of the darkening is due to the end grain being covered with microscopic roughness, tiny pits and tear out that are invisible to the eye or even to the touch, and the stain pools more thickly in these pits causing the excessive darkening. Even with the sharpest tooling you'll still get this microscopic roughness, so the remedy is to sand end grain to far higher grits than you'd normally use. Up to say 1200 or 1500, at which point the end grain colour after staining will be only very slightly darker than the long grain.

I tried it, using a selection of both open grained and closed grained timbers, and that's exactly what I found, end grain that's not materially darker than long grain after staining.

The problem is that it adds an awful lot of time to a build, however for something small like a plane handle it might be viable.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

The alternate theory says that accounts for some of the darkening, but the majority of the darkening is due to the end grain being covered with microscopic roughness, tiny pits and tear out that are invisible to the eye or even to the touch, and the stain pools more thickly in these pits causing the excessive darkening.

All true. And choking up that roughness along with partially filling the open pores of vascular tissue with polish reduces the 'pooling' of dye and/or stain. Quicker, I suspect in many cases, than working your way down to a very fine grit is the strategy I suggested of a thinned polish, sand, dye and/or stain, then polish to complete the job. Slainte.

 

[nabs]

I generally scrape off the original finish if it is flaking off, and in these cases I just use wax to finish (beeswax/linseed oil -easy to make at home!) which tends to slightly darken the wood.

One thing I learned was to be careful with linseed oil - I used it o clean up a rosewood handle that I was repairing and it turns the wood very dark - almost black.

On occassion I too have used felt tip pen to stain repairs on saw handles, although it does stain the wood effectively I did not get a very good match to the rest of the handle. Possibly my limited supply of brown felt tip pens is a factor (I've only got one!). I am not bothered with saw handles, as I think it is fair enough for the repair to be obvious so long as the handle is conforable, however...

A few months ago I got a tyzak router plane, and the original black paint finish on the handles was in a very bad state so I scraped it off. I am left with a very pale beech finish which I am not happy with and would like to stain darker. So I was interested to find this post from jim43, who clearly knows a thing about tool restoration, and he recommends leather dies:

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/bootfair-basketcases-t41435-15.html

I have bought some and will report back!

 

[nabs]

my first attempt - could do with a couple more applications to make it darker: