Transtint Dyes, Dark Mission Brown

Good product

The only reason I gave the dye 4 stars instead of 5 is because I think its a little 2 expensive for what it is. Do not get me wrong this is a great dye, but I have used other dyes that performed the same way for half the price. I just wanted to try this because it seems this is what a lot of the more experienced wood craftsman that I watch online use. One thing I really like about these dyes is that I can mix it up in a Mason jar and keep what ever I do not use. I actually had some of this in a mason jar for about 6 months. I took it out shook it up and it was ready to use. Now I don't know if there are any warnings against doing this but it has worked great for me. Transtint also makes these dyes in a lot of different colors which is quite nice and they can be mixed together to create your own custom colors. You may have to do some serious online searching to find all of their colors though, as some of the colors seem a little hard to get your hands on. I have also used this to tint some clear shellac and it worked well for that. All and all the dye works great on hard woods. As with any water based dye or stain on blotch prone woods like, birch or poplar. I recommend spraying the dye on with an HVLP gun to get a nice even absorption. Sand your wood good with a 120. Then wipe it down with a fairly wet cloth. Let it dry completely and sand it again with a 220 before you stain or dye. Though I have applied this to pine with a phone brush and got really nice results.

Several years ago, I used TransTint #3268 Dark Red Mahogany (powder) over # 3274 Dark Mission Brown (powder) to dye the maple built-ins for the first half of our finished basement, which looks awesome (see first photo). I am finally getting around to the built-ins for the second half. In the meantime, however, Homestead Finishing Products has discontinued their powder dyes in favor of liquid dyes. I ordered the liquid colors that, according to the TransTint website, replace the discontinued powder dyes: #6010 Red Mahogany and #6006 Dark Mission Brown. But they are not the same colors. The Mahogany looks like purpleheart and the Mission Brown is greenish. Together they are awful. I mixed them according to the instructions (speaking of which, a 2oz bottle of liquid dye, which makes 1/2 gallon is more than twice as expensive as the equivalent amount of powder) and stained samples that were cut from maple scrap from the original project, so it's definitely the dye, not the wood. Photo shows the difference: First set of three samples is Mahogany powder, Mission powder, and together. Second set is Mahogany liquid, Mission liquid, and together. I ordered three more dyes today (#6003 Reddish Brown, #6004 Medium Brown, and #6008 Brown Mahogany) that I hope, singly or together, will get me closer to what I want. The lighting is different in the two halves of the basement, so I can get away with a slight color difference, but I need to get way closer than where I am. To be fair, once I settle on a color combo that work, these dyes are incredibly easy to mix and to use. I raise the grain with a little water and sand down the nibs, then shoot a very light coat of dye with an HVLP setup. I seal the dye with a coat of Zinsser Bulls Eye clear shellac-based sanding sealer and finish up with three coats of Minwax Polycrylic clear semi-gloss water-based finish (yes, it's a consumer-grade product, but it's never let me down).

I got a great finish on my oak chairs by following the process of finishing them using this dye as suggested in my Shopsmith magazine

The dropper on this bottle does a bad job of allowing you to control the number of drops that come out. The tint is so thin that as soon as you invert the bottle even slightly, the tint runs out. Maybe I snipped the tip off a little to far up the neck but I used the ring around the tip as a cutting guide. I ended up having to buy a glass bottle with a bulb dropper and transfer the tint to it in order to use it. Tint is fine, the bottle stinks.