The best black

[vykus]

     I have a project where I want one piece of baltic birch black. my first attempt I used black spray paint and I was completely unsatisfied with the result. It was blotchy and textured. So I collected all forms of black that I had at my disposal and a piece of baltic birch and got to painting.

     I tried acrylic paints in black and paynes grey and as I expected they were not all that great. Next was watercolor, almost straight from the tube, just a little water added, this worked quite well. after that I attempted gouache, not so good. and finally I tried india ink. these worked pretty good, but then I remembered that I had some Japanese Sumi ink so I tried that and I have to say that worked the best.

    As you can see in the picture the sumi is very even and dark black. The bombay india ink looks better in the photo than in real life, it was uneven. Sumi ink is water based so It will have to be sealed but that should not be a problem. 

[don in brooklin on]

Have you tried sealing the wood first.?

 

I seal BB with 50% mixture of Zinzer Seal Coat and Denatured alcohol if I am trying to stain.  It takes away the blotchy ness. 

 

Don

[heppnerguy]

I will be waiting to see if Matt gives your suggestion a try. I too, have experienced the same problem. Never thought to ask anyone about a solution.. How dumb is that ? If you do try Don's suggestion, I hope you will post the results.  I am sure it is not just you and myself that have this problem with black

[amazingkevin]

three years ago I had this problem and never solved it ,good to know now thanks.many shades of black around.i think I ended up with mars black acrylic by winsor newton

Edited November 2, 2013 by amazingkevin

[PaPa50707]

How many coats are you giving it? When I airbrush the black Createx, I have to give it at least 2 coats.

[vykus]

This was all one coat only, the sumi ink was brushed on liberally and allowed to soak in, it left no brush marks or anything like that. When I apply it to the fine cuts of my project we will see how it manages, I think it should work fine, at least I hope so. 

[oldhudson]

Given that you're painting I think you should use Zinzer's oil base primer under the black.

[heppnerguy]

  Well, what was your final decision and are you happy with it ? I would like to hear your opinion on this

 

Dick

heppnerguy

[vykus]

Well I finally got it done. I used the Sumi ink, 2 coats and the 3 coats of Poly. You can see it in bragging rights "tree of life" 

[dansnow]

For Paints I use Krylon primer then color, otherwise I use MinWax Ebony stain. I especially like the ebony for the wheels on my little cars.

[amazingkevin]

Great info,i need to stock up on some stains ,black being one of them.

[annandjohn]

Have you tried blackboard paint. I have used it a few times and it does work. It dries with a smooth finish. Hope this helps.  annandjohn.

[Bendita]

I have used a lot of different Shoe polishes very successfully I may ad but if your going to glue anything on top of it you'll have to use liquid polish but for a finish I use a paste and polish it Stains and all that fancy stuff just isn't available to me here I think I'm the only scrol saw artist in the whole city of 1 million the next one to me is in Mexico city.