We have been buying Rowmark Colorshop woods, which are pre-stained satin finish 1/8" plywood sheets. It is a nice product but it is also $15-16 per sheet, and that is adding up.
I would like to find a line of colorful stains so we can process cheap BB plywood and create something similar.
TransTint dyes look promising, it’s a 2 oz concentrate that you can mix with water, poly finish, or alcohol.
Plywood is notorious for not taking stain evenly, but BB seems to be ok for the most part, probably because of its careful standards. Standard HD ply is really dodgy by comparison.
Someone was telling me they stained some. Was that @ElsieH?
Yup. However, I was going for kind of a rustic look, so I didn’t really do it the way you are supposed to when finishing. Didn’t sand before or after stain. I used a gel stain (which is great stuff by the way, very thick and easy to apply and sticks to just about anything pretty well). I didn’t even use any poly or anything after that, but I think it turned out pretty well. And yeah, probably/maybe could have been lots better. I’d be interested to see what folks who know how to do it and have the patience to do it well turn out.
I have tried just about every color, and it is good stuff… but man, at $15+ per sheet, I feel like it should not have any knots.
I’d be happy to put in the work to make some similar stuff if I could knock $10 off the per-sheet price. It would also give me access to some new colors.
Stain or dye might not be the right kind of product too, I don’t know. The Colorshop “Whitewash” is an off-white finish, clearly too opaque to be a stain… very nice looking.
I make most of my own stains. I usually try to make mine more alcohol based than water based, due to the quicker dry time and less warpage to the ply. I, like @geek2nurse, will use acrylic paints, as well as coffee, tea, food coloring, walnut sheaths, oak tannins, etc.
I ordered it from them directly during a sale a couple of weeks ago. Some folks have seen it on clearance at their local Michaels stores (hope that doesn’t suggest they’re discontinuing it).
My local Michael’s never carried it. So I’m assuming it was only some of the stores and perhaps they have decided to go with another vendor. Happens quite often. I know that one of the colors Plaid was out of for some time has come back (Teal) in stock on their website.
