Hello everyone,
I am preparing to stain my Blair Line Grade Crossings, and I have heard that you can use a mixture of india ink mixed with iso. alcohol. I was wondering what % of iso. alcohol to use and the ratio of alcohol to ink. Thanks in advance.
-Alex Warshal
99% if you can get it. As for the formula, there are many and the last Time I did it I got 4 bottles and put one teaspoon in one, adjusted for a light stain, then did the others darker. Mixed one with brown ink in it also to tone down the black. Make sure you use a good brand like Higgins and that it is water proof type! Best thing for a newbi with this type of thing is get an eyedropper and do little batches till you find what you like.
Alex,
Check out Rustystumps.com Go to the How to Articles located near the bottom of the left hand menu, good info about staining wood with alcohol and ink there.
Regards, Peter
Alex,
The site Peter was reffering to: Good tips for others also.
http://www.rustystumps.com/HowToArticles.asp
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Thanks guys, I’ll try to post some pics once I finish. -Alex Warshal
You can use alcohol if you wish, but there’s not really any need to use a highly concentrated version - 70% will work fine, or you can even use just plain water. The alcohol decreases surface tension, making it flow more readily, but that’s not really necessary on wood.
Wayne
If you have some scraps, stain one of them to see how your mix works.
Also, remember that it is better to have to stain twice than try to lighten it if you got it too dark.
Good luck,
Richard
We don’t recommend using 99% alcohol for stain, because if you wanted to use it on anything but bare wood (such as a pre-painted structure or a rock casting), it could damage underlying paint. The recipe we use in the MR workshop is 2 teaspoons of India ink in 1 pint of 70% isopropyl alcohol.
First off, don’t use water as someone suggested on wood (Blair Line) parts will warp badly. next, never had a proublem with the paint on wood (on plastic, yes, but not every brand and more likely to do so with acylics that have not cured, this can take weeks by the way even though they are dry to the touch).
Thank you all for the replies, especially Mr. Otte. I have begun staining and will report when finished.
-Alex Warshal
You dont even want to know how TIGERS do it, but then tigers are used to stripes.
ROAR
Hello guys, I stained the crossings today, but they did warp a little. What can I do to fix this? -Alex Warshal
Stain both sides equally, even if one side won’t show. Layer the still-wet parts between wax paper and weight them down with heavy books while they dry overnight.