Shaft color

[GBCues]

One other thing. Would you recommend a stain or India Ink?

Fiebing's Leather Dye

 

[muskyed]

India ink will raise the grain. Also there are two types of India ink. One is waterproof, and one water soluable.
Odds are you wont get all the sealer ir wax or whatever out of the shaft, so expect some shading or see through in spots.
The only black staining that actually came out black was some homemade stain of viniger and steel wool on oak.
It smelled but reacted nicely with the oak to turm it pitch black. Was fun to watch it react.

 

[SSDiver2112]

Fiebing's Leather Dye

I have some India ink so I will go get som fiebing’s today and experiment with both.

India ink will raise the grain. Also there are two types of India ink. One is waterproof, and one water soluable.
Odds are you wont get all the sealer ir wax or whatever out of the shaft, so expect some shading or see through in spots.
The only black staining that actually came out black was some homemade stain of viniger and steel wool on oak.
It smelled but reacted nicely with the oak to turm it pitch black. Was fun to watch it react.View attachment 721326

I don’t think that will work so good on maple. The vinegar method requires a higher tannin wood like oak.

 

[muskyed]

Ya, I wouldnt use it on maple, its sort of a pain to use, you have to soak the wood with it, and the grain raises alot.
I have used black stains and the results were mixed, depends on the type of wood.
Friends in woodturning have used India ink on pieces and it seemed to work good

 

[SSDiver2112]

Application results:
(A) India Ink only
(B) Leather dye first then India Ink
(C) Leather dye only

The dye seems to do a better job absorbing into the wood than the ink did.
The dye alone was ok, but adding the ink on top of the dye was the best result in my opinion.

I put CA on the joint end and lightly sanded 1000-3000 and topped it off with Renaissance wax.

Now comes the test to see how durable it is.