Make Burl Wood POP!

Staining wood with leather dye.

or "How to make burl wood really pop".

This technique really only works well on wood with curly grains, like burl wood and curly birch.

Staining wood with flat grains parallell to the surface will leave less of an effect but can still look cool.

For this one we are using Curly Birch in "Super" quality, this is a beautiful pale wood from Scandinavia where the grains are curled and twisted.

This means the leather dye we add will get absorbed deeper into the wood and help create the finished 3D effect. 

How to stain wood with leather dye:

1. Shape handle to final shape
2. Hand sand to 320 or 600 grit
3. Dye with leather dye
4. Sand it off again
5. Add more dye, sand again 

There is lots of room to experiment and play with this. The higher grit you sand to before adding dye, the less of it will come off again.

The darker the dye used, and the more dye you let soak in, the more will be left behind when sanding again.

In this case we sanded to 600 grit before adding Fiebing's Pro Leather Dye in Black colour (LINK), and sanded with 600 grit again. That did not quite remove enough so we touched it with some 320 as well before going back to 600. The finer paper clogs up quickly so keep swapping to new, sharp paper to get an even finish all over the handle. 

 Time for red dye

At 600 grit we went back for a second colour, this time red Fiebing's Pro Leather Dye.

When sanding this off again with 600, then 1000 and finally 1500 grit rhynowet abrasive paper, too much of the red came off.

It ended up a bit pink in the colour, so we added another coat of red dye before sanding with 1500 grit paper again.

 Third colour - why not!

In the photo above on the right you can see the handle after adding red dye for the second time. The handle was already sanded to 1500 grit before adding this coat.

This looked really nice with a deep red hue and it was tempting to stop there. That would also have looked great if just leaving it to dry before rubbing off the loose dye pigments and oiling the handle.

But easily carried away, we went for a third colur.

Adding some Yellow Fiebing's Pro leather dye this time and sanding yet again with 1500 grit.

The result was what you see on the photo above on the left, a really nice complex mix of dark undertones with the red and yellow merging together into almost a lava-like result (?).

Finished result and last thoughts

The handle came out really nice with deep colours sealed in by UBHF to protect and seal the handle.

Because the bolster was a piece of a Juma Aged Ivory scale (LINK), we did not want risking the leather dye colouring it.

Not sure if it would, but to be certain the bolster was covered in masking tape before the dye and sanding steps.

Then the next day when the handle was dry, the wood was covered with masking tape and the bolster end was quickly brought up to 1500 grit to match the handle before the whole handle was sealed with Uncle Bjorn's Handle Finish.

This is our own handle finish made in Sydney that helps protect wooden handles, leaving a glossy finish. It is easy to apply and helps you go form sanded wood to finished sealed knife handle in only a few hours (LINK).

Link to the handle block we used: Curly Birch, Super Grade