How to stain or dye boxwood?

[Mark P]

5 hours ago, Gregory said:

 I have seen many contemporary models where the blocks are approaching black..

 

 

 

 

Then there are these, which I believe may be boxwood, as the color is a lot like very old boxwood  carvings I have seen.  I have seen similar blocks on other contemporary models. 

 

If I could source blocks like this, it would never occur to me to try to stain them, but as I said above, I really don't want to wait 200 years for the color to develop.

 

The boxwood blocks I have acquired from Syren, the quality of which can't be matched from any other source, are too light for my taste.

 

After reading the info in this discussion I have dyed some of my 'Chuck' blocks with some Fiebing's leather dye with results I like.

 

 

Good Evening Gentlemen;

 

Just a brief explanatory note here; the blocks shown are from a model which was rigged in the National Maritime Museum in the 1970s, so any colour they have is likely to be either natural or a light stain. However, the wood could well be boxwood in its natural colour, as suspected by Gregory, despite having some grain visible. I have built up a good stock of boxwood from local contacts, and one thing which is noticeable is that quite a lot of it has a very obvious growth ring pattern, even more marked than can be seen in these blocks. I know that it is boxwood, buxus sempervirens, because I marked the trees, and waited to load the logs once cut. I propose to make the frames of my Royal Caroline model using the visible grain wood, and the mouldings and planking from the creamy-yellow stuff with no visible grain. Yet if I did not know that the grainy variety was boxwood, I would lay good money that it was a fruit wood, or something else, as it bears no resemblance to what most of us think of when we envisage boxwood. 

 

I am uncertain as to whether or not the visible growth rings are annual, or only appear during exceptional periods of growth/non-growth. The wood is consistently hard, and does not have alternating layers of hard and soft timber. 

 

All the best,

 

Mark P

Edited July 29, 2021 by Mark P