Adding some color to walnut veneer

[mtmpenn]

Hey Everyone,

I am new to the forum and pretty new to woodworking. I am looking for some advice finishing a project.

I am making a pair of speakers. The cabinets are made from MDF, which will be veneered with a paper backed flat cut walnut veneer, using the iron on method.

The veneer has a very nice grain pattern, relatively open pores, and a pretty blah grey color.

I used the same veneer for a prior project and experimented pretty extensively with finishing options. The last project was finished with seal-a-cell and arm-r seal. After quite a few wiped on coats the color was nice (though I might prefer something a little darker) but I didn't much care for the film aspect of the finish.

For this project, I intend to use a few coats of oil/varnish blend (maybe three) and call it a day. I used watco danish oil on test pieces for the last project, but was planning to mix my own this time using roughly 1/3 each of blo, varnish, mineral spirits. The issue is the color. I'd like to do a little something more to darken/deepen the color. I'm thinking of experimenting with dyes (thanks Mark for the recent video which was great). So, my question is:

Can I use a water based transtint dye followed by oil/varnish mix?

I imagine the following schedule:

1. wet veneer to raise grain

2. Sand back raised grain

3. Apply dye

4. Wipe on oil-varnish blend x 2-3 coats waiting a day or so between coats.

From my reading on the subject I should be okay wiping an oil based product over the dye, right?

And, any suggestions on which dye to try? I was considering experimenting with transtint "reddish brown," but wonder what other people have done. I will tell you that my test with amber shellac was more orange that I wanted. I considered garnet shellac, which seems to be a classic with walnut, but I struggled to apply shellac in an even and uniform manner and am trying to avoid it (maybe I'll take a class on shellac finishes in the future, but for now I'm staying away).

Thanks,

Mike

[Darnell Hagen]

I love Watco, I use one of the walnut shades whenever I do Walnut. It doesn't hide the chatoyance of the wood, it's easy to apply, and it prevents the bleached out look walnut gets as it fades. For the last six or seven years I've been experimenting with long oil dyes to custom tint Watco with success. I've used a lot of carbon black during the current "espresso" phase, and I also like a little red in the mix.

[mtmpenn]

Which walnut shade do you use? On a test piece I used medium walnut and felt it was not warm enough for my particular veneer (too grey).

[Darnell Hagen]

Dark Walnut for the most part, but in my experience Light, Medium, and Dark are all pretty much the same colour. Black Walnut oil is noticably darker, though still not an espresso shade.