Any Tips On Dying End Grain

[ihocky2]

I am getting ready to start testing some scraps for my tele project for dying. I am a little concerned though about the body wood and the end grain. I have never used dyes before. The body has a 3/8" maple cap and about 1-1/2" ash for the body. I tried using the search feature, but most search phrases would not be allowed because of words being too short. I saw one post saying that ash can be a nightmare to dye. Is this true? Should I try sealing the ash first and then dying with alcohol based dye.

I am mainly looking for some tips now on getting the end grain to match evenly and some tips on dying the ash. I am going to be precticing on scraps first, but would like to have a few good tips first, that way I am not wasting my time practicing bad habits. I have both water based and oil based grain filler so I could use either for the ash. I will be using Trans-Tints dyes so I can do either water or alcohol based dye. I want to dye the wood instead of spraying toner coats because I want to try and really get the grain to highlight on the maple, which I don't think I'll get with the toner coats. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[scott from _actual time_]

I am mainly looking for some tips now on getting the end grain to match evenly

i read in Workbench magazine last spring about staining the end-grain on oak trim. they said that if you sand the end-grain a full grit higher/finer than you sand the other faces, it will end up as smooth as the other faces and will take the stain more evenly.

of course, on a guitar the edges aren't discrete faces but rather a curve. you might give it a shot anyway.

[SwedishLuthier]

I shoot the dye with my spray gun. Makes it much easier to control the amount of dye that goes on/into the wood.

[GodBlessTexas]

I am mainly looking for some tips now on getting the end grain to match evenly

i read in Workbench magazine last spring about staining the end-grain on oak trim. they said that if you sand the end-grain a full grit higher/finer than you sand the other faces, it will end up as smooth as the other faces and will take the stain more evenly.

of course, on a guitar the edges aren't discrete faces but rather a curve. you might give it a shot anyway.

You can also try smoothing out the end grain with a compass plane if you have one, or a cabinet scraper.

[ihocky2]

I am not positive, but from my reading, it is my understanding that I can grain fill with oil based grain filler and still be able to dye with alcohol based. Is that correct or am I misinterpreting things? If that is the case, would I be better to grain fill the ash and the end grain on everything and even though it doesn't really need it, grain fill the maple and let it take whatever it will hold, and then spray alcohol based dye? Like I said I have plenty of scrap to do my testing on and plan on doing plenty of testing, but would like to eliminate any ideas that would cause problems from the start.