[jartzh]

I have decided that after I stained and spar varnished this piece that I dont like the color. How can I tint it to a lighter brown color? And I need the protection that the spar varnish gives me when the color is finally correct. You can see a pix on the gallery or on the WIP section. System wont let me add here.

[AlArchie]

There is no way that I'm aware of to lighten a stained and finished piece. Anything you put on over the final finish will cover what is there now, and even adding lighter stain will only darken it further. The only option to lighten that I can see is to strip off the spar varnish with a chemical stripper (NASTY business), then apply a wood bleach to the stain you have. Then the bad news to this approach, other than the pain in the keester doing the stripping......both the chemical strippers and the bleach will weaken your glue joints.

This is just my opinon, and may not suit your fancy. The overall color looks fine for the flesh areas but the rest of the figure gets lost in the "oneness" of the stain. I might do some judicious sanding on the hair, belts, breechcloths or whatever he is wearing and then use thinned oil based enamels (satin or flat finish) to add some contrast to these areas. Black on the hair and muted browns or grays for the rest of the contrast areas. You could use some water soluble kids' fingerpaints to try out the concept first. Then if you didn't like the results, simply wipe the colors off and try other combinations. Finish up[ with another coat of spar varnish after a light sanding, or that chemical sanding mix (liquid sandpaper) available in the paint stores.

That is an impressive piece, by the way!!!!!

Al

[kitaye]

I think the colour is nice, but I do think adding some stain to darken the clothing would really make it look nice too.

What I have done in the past is apply a very thin coat of a different colour, using a gel stain, over the Spar finish, let it dry, and recoat it with Spar. It was an experiment that worked out ok.

[jartzh]

Kitaye,
Did the spar stick to the gel stain ok? That sounds like the answer. Anything that keeps me from do any sanding.

Alarchie,
I am going to do some experimenting with scraps of cedar bleaching and see if I can even out the colors. Thanks

[kitaye]

I put on the gel, let it sit a few minutes and wiped off the excess. I let that dry for about two weeks before I recoated it with spar. I didn't have any problems with it lifting the gel at that point. I do want to stress that I did not have a high gloss coat of spar on the carving so you might want to test it on a scrap piece before you ruin your lovely carving.

[jartzh]

I put a light coat of gel on it and let dry for a couple of days. Tomorrow I am going to spar varnish over it. Thanks for the info. I like the color now a lot better - it just took the reddish tint out of it.

Learn something everyday!

[kitaye]

Make sure you post the new picture too. I want to see how the colour changes effect the carving.

[jartzh]

The finished pix is on the carver gallery.

[kitaye]

That looks wonderful Jartzh. Was the streaking intentional or just a happy accident? I think the colour is much better the new way.

[jartzh]

I did streak it with the brown gel stain to get it looking a little like grain.