Which Transtint Colors

[Willyou]

Which colors do you use most? If you could have only 4, which would you get?

[Trusty Rusty]

Black
Red
Mission Brown
Red Mahogany
I would want more but if I could only have 4
Rusty

[Trusty Rusty]

Oops
I put Red Mahogany
Meant to put Honey Amber
You must have this one
Rusty

[JR1]

You can go that route by buying colors as you need them and not being disappointed if you guess wrong for a project. I bought #6005 and wound up using 6002 . You will not wind up with 4 predictable colors. Another consideration is that the dye will look different depending on how it is applied. Are you going to apply it in: water, alcohol, shellac (what color and cut), waterborne (which one),….

But there are not 4 transtint colors that will reproduce the tone that you need. It's not like CYMK (process or subtractive color¹) as you would expect. Transtint has RGB² plus black but two distinct shades of red as well as yellow. Yes you could get a couple books on color theory and a color wheel and make a hobby of color matching rather than wood working.

¹ when to use RGB vs CMYK
² RGB are subtractive colors.

[Willyou]

At the moment, I don't have any. And, as you know, they are not exactly cheap. If I were to buy one of each (2oz size), it could cost over $200. Also, mixing colors is not something I do frequently. So, I'm just trying to find out which colors experienced finishers use the most. I would have guessed something close to what Rusty said.

Rusty. Keeping the list as short as possible, which colors would you add to your list?

[JR1]

I just looked and I have 9 of them: #6002 GOLDEN BROWN, #6003 REDDISH BROWN, #6005 DARK WALNUT, #6009 DARK VINTAGE MAPLE, #6010 RED MAHOGANY (unopened), RGB and black.

As I said I would only buy one that I think that I need/want on a project by project basis. Now I generally use hem in tint coats of shellac and I got the effect I bought the #6010 for using Thai seed and Garnet shellac without any dye. BTW I like the color I get from black shellac better than adding black dye to orange shellac.

The ones that I use most are; #6002, #6003, and #6009.

[jteneyck]

Transtint is dirt cheap considering how much dye it makes and how well it works. A bottle is around $20, less than one board for most woods. And you can buy really big bottles quite a bit cheaper as well as overstock at Jeff Jewitt's Ebay website.

Anyway, the four I probably use the most are Medium Brown (almost the same as Brown Mahogany), Red, Honey Amber, and Dark Walnut. But I have more, and often use Green (to turn tint something that's too red towards brown) and Black, too.

The ones you want will depend upon what you are making. If you make Mission or Stickley style you would want to buy Dark Mission Brown, for sure. If you work with a lot of cherry you might want a bottle of Brown Mahogany, and a bottle of Dark Walnut if you work with walnut frequently. If you had said you don't mind mixing your own, then the best four would be Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow because you can make any color from them.

John

[Trusty Rusty]

Probably about what John said.
Green
Dark Walnut
Red Mahogany

But like John said, it's really the cheapest finish stuff around. A bottle lasts forever. You really don't need a ton of colors since you can add more or less and change the depth of color. I very seldom try to dye anything the actual color that I want, just get it in the ballpark. Then use other dyes as toners to reach the final color. That way you can see the color as you progress with out it changing so much as it dries.
Rusty

[Willyou]

I wasn't trying to suggest that the dye is too expensive. Only that the prices are significant enough that I don't want to use the "shotgun" approach and buy colors that I may rarely or never use. You have all given me just the info I need to make some wise selections. Because I nave to order it, I can't just go buy it as I need it and then go get another if it doesn't work out.

Thanks

[Kansas City Fireslayer]

1. Dark Walnut
2. Mission Brown
3. Green (to add to the above)

I would experiment more and add more colors but I haven't had the time. I really like adding a few light coats of sprayed dark walnut to black walnut wood. It evens it out and "should" help prevent the wood from turning orangish from years of UV rays. I'll report back on that in 10-20 years.