Dear All,
Apologies if this has been discussed before, but I didn’t find any topics…
I’d like to know how to stain wood ties. I’ve tried “India Ink” without success.
I’d appreciate your suggestions.
Cheers
Dan
Odd. India ink in alcohol worked for me. Did you let them soak overnight? You can also use a wash of acrylics or even regular wood stain in a dark color. What kinds of problems are you having?
Perhaps the problem I’m having is impatience! :-))
I really only dipped them into the solution and agitated them but nothing seemed to take? I’ll retry leaving them in to soak.
Thanks for the response.
I use a pretty labor intensive procedure but it works well for me. I take my ties and soak them in a water based American Walnut stain for a little while. I remove them and run them under the faucet, wipe them down with a towel and then let them dry. Then I go back and rough them up with a rasp and file to get some texture and then let them soak in the stain again and once again go through the rinse, wipe, and dry cycle. Once they are dry I lay them, the tie plates, spike the rail etc. I mask over the ties, and paint the rails and details with Floquil Rail Brown and then dry brush it all with Floquil rust. Then I go back and pick select ties to go over again with a Minwax American Oak stain pen. Keep in mind that my track is in O scale so while the fine details may not be appropriate in your scale, the colors at least should be. This track is currently still under construction and has more yet to be done to it.
Dan,
How well the ties absorb the ink may depend on the brand of wood as I’ve run into the same problems you mention. Try “Boot” dye. Tarrago is a well known brand. You can thin it with rubbing alcohol. I’ve also had luck with thinning Floquil paints such as a grimy black/roof brown wash.
Lance
I use basswood ties from Northeast Scale Lumber. Every other company offers ties made out of pine. The basswood ties take a stain much nicer than pine does.
My club used to stain wood ties for years using Old English furiture polish. The short time effects looked good but alway faded out to requiring additional coats. This was fine for ties that were to be old weathered ties as washes or dry brushing to a more silvered aged look worked. If you want that newer creosote look, then stains such as Minwax, Am. walnut, Jacobean or any other stains representing that dark brown can be used. Zar teak natural and walnut is a great choice, but not always found. The Zar stains are a very heavily bodied oil stain and can/ should be thinned for use. Minwax has been getting quite thin w/ a serious amout of vehicle that can also fade and bleach out once dry.
Dear Fred,
That is really lovely work there… well done!
To others, thanks for the advice. I appreciate what you have said. I’m not sure what kind of wood my ties are… They are the Fast Tracks turnout ties. I would have thought that they were bass wood, but they may well be pine.
Cheers for now,
Dan
Fast Tracks ties are made by Mt. Albert so they are White Pine. They changed them last year from Sugar Pine which is getting more scarce. Only NE Scale Lumber offers Basswood ties. I have heard people complain that the Basswood ties split easily. I haven’t had any more problems with them than I have pine and the few that may split only add a bit of authenticity.
I use Kappler ties. I am modeling the 1900 era before ties were commonly creosoted, so I want my ties to be a silver grey. I use alcohol based leather dye (bought at Hobby Lobby) and mix hardware store alcohol (shellac thinner) and some dye in a peanut butter jar. I soak the raw ties a couple hours in the dye mix, put them on paper towels to dry. After a glue them down, I sand the tops lightly. I then take 60 grit sand paper and run it across the tie tops in line with the length of the ties to give them grain and weathering. I take some dye mix and cut it about 50% with more alcohol and use that to restain the tie tops.
A tip which worked good for me … I used stains and put the ties in panty hose and soaked them over night… then put out to dry. Worked great.
Hal