Dying binding?

[Chaosblade]

It's known that binding will get colored by dyes, hence the need to scrape it. But I'm curious if dying or inking can be an effective way to change the color of binding and still look good.

Specifically, I'm thinking about ordering an AIB-1Q in the future but would prefer black binding. Given that the wait for my current custom order is at 8 months and counting, I think I'd rather just try to color it myself than wait for such a small customization. But if it's unlikely to turn out I might just settle for waiting on the custom and change a couple other small things as well.

Searching around, haven't found any good results of people attempting this. So I'm guessing just getting black binding from the start is probably the better option if I want it to look nice.

[JimC]

My experience with the binding is that its a rigid plastic that won't dye per se. Dye will penetrate almost microscopic cracks caused by bending, but that is erratic and probably not very aesthetic.
Paints and curing oils will cover the binding of course, and that is i think the need for scraping. I think your chances of turning white binding black acceptably are low - effectively you'd be just painting a black line over the binding, and every chip would show white, so yeah, I suggest getting black from the start.

[Simon Barden]

As the Stones said, paint it black.

I got dye in the cracks on my binding on my ES-1 kit, couldn't get it out, so ended up painting the binding white. I was using nitro as the finish in my spray gun, but still just used a small brush (along with some masking). A very light sand for any rough bits. With a coat of amber tint and then clear lacquer over that, it looks fine until you get really very close.