I stained this pipe with orange Kool Aid. http://pipesmagazine.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/album/10668/kool-aid-grabow.jpg
Kool Aid pipe stain. PICS
- Thread starter danielplainview
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That does look great but how does the color hold up to heat? Wouldn't the sugar crystalize with heat?
Never would have guessed that it was stained with Kool Aid. It really did a nice job of highlighting the grain.
Is this a creative bunch? It would never have occurred to me. Looks great. Let us know how it holds up.
Wow! That looks great! I have an unfinished Sav that I'd like to try that with. Can you tell us the step by step process on that?
Thanks fellas. It turned out much better than I thought. Here's how I did it. Sugar free packet. I used just enough water to dilute the powder. I had removed all of the original finish from the pipe before hand, so it was a natural briar finish I applied it to. Brushed on the mixture and let it set about twelve hours. It was pretty dark so I lightly dry sanded it to lighten it up some. Waxed and buffed it. I've smoked it once and it's holding up so far. It's one of my work pipes so I wasn't to worried about messing it up, but it looks pretty good. I'll try it again on another beater to see if I get the same results.
I might try this, but I imagine I'll try diluting with alcohol instead of water for a quicker dry. There are so many flavors of koolaid (of course being so many different colors) you could mix colors to come up with some pretty nice and unique stains I imagine. 
The pipe you did turned out beautiful. Well done.
The pipe you did turned out beautiful. Well done.
It's not uncommon for knitters to use Kool-Aid to dye yarn.
So does it smell fruity when you smoke it?
So does it smell fruity when you smoke it?
Here's four Grabow's I refinished. Left to right the stains are red--then natural--then just carnuba--on 4th one I tried orange Kool-Aid mixed with denatured alcohol for just a couple minutes and it did'nt soak in at all, so then I stained over that with natural stain in alcohol. Then carnuba waxed and buffed them all. The 4th one was actually my first pipe. The rest are all from heebay, and I guess are all different ages because there are three slightly different sizes. The older ones are smaller by maybe 10 to 15 percent.
When you guys refer to me, just use tinner or tinman.
I've always felt that Dr. G,s greatest failing was the use of that hideous red-brown stain. Sure, it hides the fills, but it generally looks like hell. Plus the heavy varnish...
Update on the kool aid pipe stain. Some of the fellas wanted to know how it holds up. 6 or 8 bowls later, it still looks good. Even the rim of the pipe is holding firm. I might try yellow next. I wouldn't recommend trying any of the dark colors. I imagine it would be like dipping briar into ink. And red would turn pink. As for orange, it's a solid yes. It works!
Thanks for the tip Daniel. This is a breakthrough for the do-it-yourselfers. Now I know what to stain with without having to by an entire tin of something fancy!
So I'm thinking maybe mixing a little red with the orange will darken the stain a little bit. I really want to try this.
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