I have done a test using my daughter's wooden blocks as specimen. I use yellow, blue, red, purple, orange and green, and intend to mix the remainder together to make some shade of muck.

All of the blocks were soaked for 24 to 48 hours, except red, which is still soaking. The red is actually a mix of some funky reddish fancy named color and yello, with the hope of getting orange. It turned out to just stay red. I first used the red to dye some old softballs in order to distinguish my balls from the rest of the team's balls at practices. I put two wood blocks in with the softballs, and except where the softballs were touching the blocks, they were a nice even deep red. After soaking for nearly a week, I took out the softballs, put the rest of the blocks in, and then put the original red dyed blocks back in hoping that the spots where they contacted the softballs would even out. The dye seems to have been weakend by the use on the softballs because the red is still a bit pale. This all started with the intent to simply make red softballs, but I remembered an earlier thred on this BBS

The other colors all came out with beautiful rich colors soaked deep into the wood. I haven't tried sanding any of the blocks to see how deep, but by the look and feel of what took place, I'd guess it's really penetrated well into the wood.

I would have to consider all the colors that were not depleted prior to their use on the wood very successful. I did not try using the dye (powder form) mixed with alcohol in place of all or part of the hot water. I still have to try some bleeding tests and then I will aply a waterbase varnish over the the blocks and put them into operation for their original intended use. I'll show a picture if I get a chance.

I'll let you know if I get the red to turn out. It has been soaking since Saturday, and I'll let it soak with occasional aggitation until this coming Saturday.

The dye costs about $2.50/ pkg, and I use it to make about 2-1/2 gallons of dye. Soaking long boards would require a specially made vat and more dye. It could make a great waterline strip, or other accent (Blue to go with your bungee cords) if you aren't a wood purist.