Selective Staining
Selective Staining
This is my first pipe with any sort of stem adornment/extension. I think I'd like to leave the maple natural as a contrast to the stained briar, but I'm not at all sure how to accomplish that. The pipe still needs refinement, but how can I "mask" the maple when the time comes to apply stain to the rest of the stummel? I'm concerned that stain will tend to wick under any masking attempt. Is it futile?
"Cut your own wood and you warm yourself twice." - Henry Ford
Fred, assuming you have already permanently attached the maple section, I know of 2 main methods. First, you could try to apply some kind of agent that would prevent the maple from absorbing any stain... this could be done a number of ways, but the easiest would be to apply a very light coat of urethane to the maple and let it dry before continuing. This may not prevent some stain from leaking/wicking in the joint between the two types of wood though, so apply your stain delicately at that end of the pipe.
You could then sand/tripoli the urethane back off the maple if you desired.
Alternatively, you could try to get something to soak into the maple and cure it so that it won't take stain. Linseed or tung oil might be an option, but the fear I have with doing it this way is that briar is more absorbent than maple (I think just about every wood is) and so you might wind up screwing up the stain-taking ability of the briar at that end of the pipe (ie, you might do more harm than good).
I suspect that this latter method is better employed before the two pieces of wood are permanently joined... make one piece impervious to stain ahead of time, as it were.
If it were my pipe, I would apply a bit of tung oil to the maple, stain the pipe carefully, and hope for the best. But there may be folks with some slicker ideas than mine.
You could then sand/tripoli the urethane back off the maple if you desired.
Alternatively, you could try to get something to soak into the maple and cure it so that it won't take stain. Linseed or tung oil might be an option, but the fear I have with doing it this way is that briar is more absorbent than maple (I think just about every wood is) and so you might wind up screwing up the stain-taking ability of the briar at that end of the pipe (ie, you might do more harm than good).
I suspect that this latter method is better employed before the two pieces of wood are permanently joined... make one piece impervious to stain ahead of time, as it were.
If it were my pipe, I would apply a bit of tung oil to the maple, stain the pipe carefully, and hope for the best. But there may be folks with some slicker ideas than mine.
Yes, unfortunately it’s already permanently attached. I think a non-absorbent spacer of some sort (acrylic?) between the two should have been employed. I’m usually a deliberate guy, but I just epoxied the maple in place in a “fit of rage” after I screwed up the shank late last night and I wasn’t thinking ahead. Now that I think about it, since the age of 14 or so, most of my self-induced problems have their beginnings late at night when I should have been tucked snuggly in bed.
"Cut your own wood and you warm yourself twice." - Henry Ford
LOL Fred.... lots of us have that same problem.
The good news is, the epoxy between the maple and the briar should have a really strong limiting effect on stain transference deep in the wood, so really, you probably only need to worry about the surface, in which case, topcoating that maple should work pretty well.
The good news is, the epoxy between the maple and the briar should have a really strong limiting effect on stain transference deep in the wood, so really, you probably only need to worry about the surface, in which case, topcoating that maple should work pretty well.
Hi Fred,
The way to do it right, when you have a shank extension that will take stain, is to shape the pipe and extension with the extension friction fitted onto the shank. Once you're done with final shaping, put a light pencil mark at 2 or 3 places across the shank/extension join, so you can line them up later.
Remove the extension and stain and finish the bowl, then epoxy the extension back on using your pencil marks to line it up correctly. When the epoxy has almost set, any squeeze out will peel right off and leave you with a clean joint.
Rad
The way to do it right, when you have a shank extension that will take stain, is to shape the pipe and extension with the extension friction fitted onto the shank. Once you're done with final shaping, put a light pencil mark at 2 or 3 places across the shank/extension join, so you can line them up later.
Remove the extension and stain and finish the bowl, then epoxy the extension back on using your pencil marks to line it up correctly. When the epoxy has almost set, any squeeze out will peel right off and leave you with a clean joint.
Rad
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staffwalker
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Hi, somewhere on here in some thread or other, just recently, I posted a method I use with vaseline applied to the part you wish to stop stain from wicking onto. It a method I use on occasion and one that has always worked provided I have masked correctly. I tried to find it for you but unfortunately I suck with search engines. You might try your luck. bob gilbert
Thanks for the tips guys. Rad, after I realized that I had done it wrong, I searched the forum and found out how to do it "right", but of course it was too late. Now I know.
Sas - The epoxy did, indeed, form a barrier preventing "underground" stain weepage and through judicious use of a Q-tip applicator and a steady hand, I was able to get right up to, but not over, the line and keep the stain off of the surface also.
Sas - The epoxy did, indeed, form a barrier preventing "underground" stain weepage and through judicious use of a Q-tip applicator and a steady hand, I was able to get right up to, but not over, the line and keep the stain off of the surface also.
"Cut your own wood and you warm yourself twice." - Henry Ford