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Did a search on this but all the posts were pretty old. I'm thinking people might have changed their processes and become more experienced so I'm putting it back out there.

How do you do a black dress finish?

I have tried various combinations of marker, stain and tinted shellac but im still a bit hit and miss with the results. Some come out great, others still show grain especially after buffing.

Any ideas?

The only sure way I know of is glossy black paint of some kind.

Rad

Any recomendations on that Rad? Have you done this before?

I've never tried it. I just know it's virtually impossible to get a glossy, solid black finish with stain. Tinsky once told me that the only way he knew how to get a solid black finish was paint.

Rad

Ok thanks for the advice.

Todays pipe look solid black at arms length, but there are one or two areas that you can see a bit of grain if you get close and put it under the right light. I think this is probably as close as you will get under normal circumstances.
I used black marker to colour it, then applied two coats of tinted shellac (i bought a pre-mixed ebonising shellac from liberon, cut it with meths and added a healthy glug or black shoe dye) the first coat was the normal spit shine coat that was wiped off, then a second thin coat was brushed on and left to dry. I didnt buff with compound as i found on a scrap peice that it will take off too much colour, i just buffed well with wax.

Maybe a spray lacquer? I don't know. I have a can of stuff in my basement - Master's Magic I think - that did a great job on some metal bits.

I have a feeling, however, that to get a truly smooth finish on the wood you might need to do something similar to what electric guitar makers do. I can't recall the exact process, but it's a multi-coat finish with sanding sealer and spray lacquer. The Grizzly catalog (of all places) has a good description of the process.

I had to do a set of black, high gloss cabinets once, and the method that worked the best was painting them black, literally with Tremclad, and then lacquering and sanding and lacquering etc. Came out excellent.

So I suspect that a buffed finish, a wax finish, is not going to give you the result you want. That real "deep" black comes from a black surface with a shiny plastic coating on it. Spraying with 90 degree lacquer would be my shot at it.

This is a Fiebings black dye which I have tried a couple of times at various levels of failure. This one I sanded to 2000 as I planned on skipping the green trip buff as I feel it is what takes off too much. On this one I heated the stummel as usual and applied the dye very heavily. Rather than an immediate alcohol wipe and buff I let it sit overnight. I also let the shellac completely set up and dry before taking an alcohol paper towel and wiping it. The paper towel did turn black. Buffing was at a reduced speed, third pulley on the jet and straight to the white trip. Was a slow process but it buffed up without removing the dye. Was kind of surprised that the pad didn't discolor .... much, just a streak of gray. While not real brilliant when finished buffing the wax and final buff finished it off with a brilliant shine. Every finger print shows up like a mile marker on route 95.

About at 8 o'clock there is the faint appearance of the grain underneath but you have to look really close. I'm not sure if it was the process or just dumb luck on this particular block.

I had a similar approach with the dress black pipes I just did for a club pipe set. I actually started by sanding all the way to 400 without any stain, and then laid down a black chemical dye for a base, then heated the stummel and applied copious amounts of Fiebings black, and let it dry as you did. Then the lightest of Shellac coats followed by white diamond and wax only, with the buff turning really slow.

They turned out great...glossy, wet black. I think that over time the grain will likely start to peek through, as is the case with the Dunhill dress black pipes I have.

The process was really time consuming compared to "regular" staining jobs. I think in the future if I were to do more this way, it would only be at a customer's begging request.

ckr wrote:Rather than an immediate alcohol wipe and buff I let it sit overnight. I also let the shellac completely set up and dry before taking an alcohol paper towel and wiping it.

Doesn't the Alcohol take the shellac right off? In the past I've used alcohol to remove the shallac when to much was applied.

Simeon - the black pipe turned out great. I have been meaning to ask how you accomplished it. Thanks

Shellac is real slow to dissolve once it hardens up. Takes hours.

Sasquatch wrote:Shellac is real slow to dissolve once it hardens up. Takes hours.

Thanks, Thats good to know, I never realized it.