# Tinting Wood Glue to Match Wood/Stain color



## Pruiett Furniture

I am creating a table top from red oak and want it to look antque/distressed. I notices that an exemplar at Pottery Barn had a dark look between boards in the joints. What is the best way for me to color my otherwise milky wood glue to be the stain color or darker. I want to do this in a way that the wood glue's adhesive and strength qualities are not degraded. Thanks for any help.


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## RogerInColorado

Most glues, like white glue and yellow glue, refuse to accept stain. You actually need to make very sure that you get it all off or it will show up under your finish as a white mess or a yellow mess. I suspect the piece you are talking about actually has (intentionally) poor fitting joints where the stain can hide and accumulate instead of being wiped off. I suggest you glue up a few pieces and experiment with technique. If you don't have kids or grandkids to help you distress the pieces you will have to make do with logging chains and icepicks and maybe a hatchet.


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## Steve Neul

I think if the joint is done right the glue line will dissappear regardless if you tint it or not. You can tint wood glue with a universal tinting color. It's the same colorant the paint store uses to tints paint with. Some Sherwin William stores sell Cal-Tint in bottles. Burnt umber is usually the best color to mix wood colors with. If they don't have it sometimes they will put a couple of ounces in a can or jar out of their machines however they don't have burnt umber. You may have to get raw umber and mix a little red oxide with it.


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## GoIrish

Epoxy with saw dust is dark. Maple give a dark brown. Cherry or walnut would be darker I suppose. It will make the joint stronger than unfilled epoxy too.


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## rrich

Is it possible that the dark between the table top joints is hide glue? DUNNO, just a thought.


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## Bonka

*Glue Tint*

I'm in the camp of a glue line not being visable with properly jointed boards.
For all intents and purposes glues are not gap fillers. If a glue would fill a gap it seems the gap would have to be equal the lenght to the joint to present an even seam.
If a darker joint is desired a thinly ripped darker wood could be placed between the main jointed boards. The would seem, to me, to involve a lot of care ensuring consistant thickness to the strips to prevent gaps.


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## Tommie Hockett

+1 with RogerinColorado. The joints are probably spaced a little bit apart. I built a table awhile back. I didn't have any clamps at the time so I screwed 2x4's to the bottom. The joints didn't come out perfectly. I had to do some sanding after I had it all put together and I had to restain it and it came out looking like you described but I don't have any pictures of the final product but here it is right after I put it together before sanding again.....And to get a distressed look I left a lot of the sanding marks and saw marks in it and I beat the heck out of it with a towing chain


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