Violin Forum/Message Board

jethro · Member Joined: 07 Apr 2007 Posts: 178

Found this tea in store-never noticed it before. It is red and I am trying to get a red-brown outcome. I have used strong (4 bags/ half cup) red rose brand black pekoe tea with good results. (this I drink !)
The red tea has a kind of cinimon taste!

Tim

PeterG · Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 6:10 am Post subject:

I had a cup of that not too long ago. I don't know what kind of stain it would make but must say I didn't care for the taste all that much. I use King Cole orange pekoe and I have used Red Rose also for stain. Not much difference that I can see, but both good drinks. A lot faster than sun tanning the wood, especially with our maritime winters.

kubasa · Member Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Posts: 212

Might be a dumb question but how do y'all apply the tea? Do you use a spray bottle and spray it on lightly or just brush it on? How many coats do you use? Also, do you end up having to re-scrape the wood to smooth it due to grain raising? Sorry for all the questions. I've never "tanned" my wood before finishing but I'm thinking about trying it on the next one.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Chet Bishop · Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 5:41 pm Post subject:

Lots of people raise the grain on purpose. The corduroy effect is liked by some. I have done this on several instruments, and I like it. But not everyone does.

jethro · Member Joined: 07 Apr 2007 Posts: 178

Kubasa:
On number one I just painted on several wet coats to the bare wood before any ground or sealing. A few days later I did a coat or two of
dilute shellack as I remember and then steel wooled. But BEWARE ! --
don't steel wool unsealed wood if you are planning on using tea- I found
out the hard way- in bare wood the steel wires jab down into the pores ofthe wood and break off like splinters. They are about invisible untill you
apply the tea which reacts with the invisible splinter to generate a large
BLACK spot at each hidden splinter. It looks like you let sharpie ink bleed
out on the wood ! I had to rescrape and still I couldn't get it all 100%-
and I couldn't use the tea on that one - which resulted in a beautiful but
too blonde instrument ! (dumb blonde ! )

Tim

kubasa · Member Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Posts: 212

Thanks for the replies and thanks for the tip on steel wool, Jethro. I avoid sandpaper generally but I do have a tendency to use steel wool every now and then so that information will be useful. I really want to try some tea on my next instrument so I appreciate the remarks.

MANFIO · Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 8:05 pm Post subject:

I use English tea, but quite strong, 3 tea bags boiled in one cup and half of water, 2 or 3 coats.
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Barry Dudley · Member Joined: 01 Jan 2008 Posts: 64 Location: Monroe, GA

I have meant to ask this question before but do you apply the tea to the raw wood and then your ground?

Dave Chandler · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:34 pm Post subject: Tea

I followed Manfio's suggestion, with my own variation, and used about 5 teabags in about a half cup of boiling water, let it steep some time, pressed the bags out, and applied it to back and sides of a violin I'm just fitting up now. It brought out grain features that were invisible before. I wiped it on with a paper towel, twice, not a real soaking. It did raise the grain, so I put a thin very diluted amber shellac coating (1# cut) to stabilize the grain, and then lightly scraped it down. Looks real nice for what was pretty plain wood. What kind of tea? It was a mix of teabags, I think an orange pekoe, a couple English Breakfast, and an Irish something. Whatever the wife wouldn't miss.
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M Mibeck · Junior Member Joined: 17 Aug 2009 Posts: 2

Geemac · Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 10:01 pm Post subject:

A thin coat or 2 of orange shellac will also give nice color.
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Dave Chandler · Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:40 am Post subject: stains

My approach is to bring out the contrast in the wood, and not so concerned about color until the color varnish stage.

I've taken to using very diluted clear shellac with a small amount of water based walnut stain mixed in. Doesn't raise the grain so much. You might try that on a scrap piece. You can experiment with mahogany for more red. The walnut stain I'm using is by Tru-oil for gunstocks, got it in the sporting goods store.

I've been adding a coat of orange varnish before my final colors to get a reddish undertone, which Geemac suggests.
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Southern Violin Association

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to the next with no loss of enthusiasm" Winston Churchill

"I took the road less travelled, and now I don't know where I am." Marco Polo