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I have some walnut binding which I would like to dye black and use instead of ebony for binding the edge of a soundhole. Can I use ordinary wood dye and when I glue it to the soundboard with Titebond will it behave itself and not bleed into the end grain of the spruce?

Grateful to hear your experienced views

Hmm, never done that, adn really wouldnt bother trying - for black binding around a soundhole, I woud use fibre ....

If you do try it,. I would seal the end grain of the top first, and then use CA to attach. Use some scrap to test it out first ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Thanks guys.

I think I may just go for ebony, it was just lots of folks say it is hard to bend and breaks easily whilst Ive used the walnut to bend into a tight circle before ok. Plus I have it to hand and am just being economical!

I've darkened walnut with iron buff and didn't experience any staining. Agree with shellac on the top before gluing. And Chris is right--if it's not nearly the perfect depth at time of inlay it'll be inconsistent color after leveling, which depending on the grain of the walnut, can even be visually interesting.

Try on scrap first for sure.

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Evan McCartney

Have you though about ebonizing it? I was talking to Eric Marzak this weekend at the Woodstock Show about ebonizing Walnut. He said he used tea water to boost the tanic acid in the wood and then dissolved a steel wool pad in vinagar and applied it to the walnut. I was thinking of trying it on Locust for a fingerboard and bridge but I don't know how deep the ebonizing goes if the strings erode the fingerboard. I need to experiment-but for binding it should work and I don't think there is any way it would bleed.

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Mistakes are mandatory-learning from them is optional. http://www.opensourceluthiersupply.com

It won't penetrate very deep. I had a piece soaking in ferrous acetate for over 6 weeks. Gives a nice Black but you'll be lucky to get it to go below 0.3 mm.
Pressure dyeing is a different matter.

You can cut two thinner pieces of ebony and bend them separately. Then CA them to the sound hole. I get my ebony from off cuts of the fingerboard.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

I use ebony, but if I were doing this I would fume it. It will turn completely black and will penetrate at least 1/8" on all sides, so it would go all the way through binding.

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Randy Muth
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