Black Dyed Castello and Holly

J

Jameel Abraham

Member
I've never used black dyed boxwood veneer for bandings, only ebony. I'm a bit tired of using ebony for various reasons. Cost being one, and having to process my own veneer being the other. I only use it for making up small bandings and inlay, so running some ebony down to 1/32 or less isn't horrible, but I'd rather spend my time making the actual end product than making the veneer.  I've noted that a number of folks are using dyed box instead of ebony. I do a lot of light veneers, like holly or maple, alongside ebony in my work, so I'm a little concerned about bleeding if I move to dyed castello. Are they any special provisions I need to make to do the switch? Glues? Finishes? I need the black and white to remain very crisp in the finished product. Like this ebony and holly inlay:
 
Jameel.

I've used black dyed castello with holly using both white glue and clarified hide and saw no bleeding. However, normally the black dyed is only available in standard thickness and is laminated to get thicker stuff, To make your examples, I'd stay with the ebony.
 
Thanks Dick. Just the info I was looking for. The standard thickness veneer is actually what I'm interested in. The thicker stuff is easy enough to make.
 
Jameel - there's another alternative that's in wide use by violin makers for purfling - dyed european pearwood.  It's far easier to work with than ebony (because it's not brittle), and can be purchased from luthier suppliers in an already-dyed state.  And it's far, far cheaper, of course.
 
I've never had any issues with dyed pearwood or castello bleeding into other lighter colored woods.  I make all my banding and inlay materials and honestly have avoided ebony most of the time because of it's expense and lack of flexibility.

C J
 
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