Not Food Dye and I don't use it to find scraches but I use a Lemon Yellow water based stain, food dye may have Sugar in it, it comes in a powder made by Lockwood's. Keith Casteel explained it to me 40 some years ago and I have used it ever since on stocks and furniture.
Using a small spoon, like a teaspoon to about a half cup of water. A half cup will last through many builds. Final sand/scrape, paint it on with a brush, it is going to be Bright Yellow. Let it dry, it will raise the grain, sand/scrape, you will see the color stays in the softer wood. Once you are satisfied, brush more Yellow on if you want, put your stain (the test strip below has Mahogany Oil based Leather dye on it) rub with 0000 and put the finish on. I use three or four coats of Danish oil rubbed out with 0000 between coats. After the last coat I rub it out with a coarse rag and wax.
The first Pic is of a test strip I did about 25 years ago, the other two are of an Island I built for one of the girls, not much curl but I think it helped..
Tim C.
