Natural Binding

[loudandproud]

OK so what i was going to do is mask off the inside of the wood and laquer the binding to seal it. But then i was going to dye it black then sand back and restain it red.

Now the problem is that i am worried that when i do the sand back i will go through the laquer and then when i restain the red will shed into the binding.

Will it happen?

I dont know ive never finished anything like so, yah.

[mikhailgtrski]

Are you masking just the side of the "binding" or do you want a lip of binding around the top edge?

I sealed the side, masked over it (just to be safe), then did the dye/sandback/dye method. Once the dyeing process was complete I used a razorblade (with a piece of plastic taped on for a depth stop) to scrape the top edge clean. It turned out pretty well: scraped binding. However, if you do a really heavy, dark dye for your sandback, it can soak in fairly deep and might not scrape back to totally white maple - there's still a little bit of dye enhancing the figure in the top edge of my binding - a nice effect that I kinda like, but it depends on what you want.

If you want to keep the top edge of the binding completely clean and white, then you'll need to leave the side and top lip exposed when you mask it for sealing. Seal the binding with 2 or 3 coats of lacquer (or shellac). Then when you do your dye/sandback, the dye won't get into the top lip of your binding. The sealer will get sanded off the top edge, but I don't think you need to reseal once you're done with the really heavy dye - the lighter dye passes should scrape off clean, and there's probably enough sealer left in there to keep the dye from soaking in.

There are several different ways to accomplish a faux binding - this one worked for me.

Mike