# Ebonizing Wood



## The_Architect_23 (Aug 27, 2012)

Today Before I Went Off To Work, I Read An Article About Ebonizing Wood.
It Involved Dissolving Steel Wool In Apple Vinegar Solution For 24 Hours.

I Remembered Something About This From Chemistry, So I Gave It a Shot.
I Did 24 Hours And Carefully Strained The Solution Making Sure Not To Get any Debris From The Wool In There. The Vinegar Looked Unchanged. 

I Used An Acid Brush From HF To Dip And Apply A Layer Across 1 Oak Pen Blank, The Results Were Immediate. BLACK Wood.... I Observed As The Change Occurred A Slight Sheen Of Grey And Black Lines. Almost Like Spalting Right Before It Went Black Entirely. Pretty Cool I Thought, So I Tried A Few More Woods.
Oak, Walnut, Black Cherry, Poplar, Elm, Euc, Red Euc, And Maple Both Figured And Unfigured.
Most Just Went Black And Were Un Attractive. Minus the Oak ( Very Unique )
The Plain Hard Maple Had No Effect. Cedar Being The Most Unattractive. Burnt Brown Color. Almost Like Pressure Treated 4X4's From Home Depot.

The One Piece That I Liked And Did NOT Turn All Black Was Figured Hard Maple. No Spalting Or Cracks. Distinguished Color Changes And Waves In The Grain.
This Turned A Great Grey, Green, Black, Reddish Hue.


While Tinkering I Dipped In And Out OF My Jar A Few Times, Which I Assume Contaminated My Batch Of Juice Because It Went From Vinegar Color To Rust Looking And Cloudy. I Also Noticed If You Control The Amount OF Liquid On The Surface Vs. Time ( IE. Dab It Off After 5-10 Seconds ) And Seal It Under A Spray Of Clear Poly It Stops The Reaction At That Hue Stage.

No Pictures For Now, But I Am Curious Has Anyone Else Tryed This Technique With Success On A Particular Wood? Im Looking To Slightly "Weather" As A Finish. Not Just Blacken.


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## Dusty (Aug 27, 2012)

I tried it several times to color maple. I wanted to get the same look the old time gunsmiths got on tiger maple for Kentucky Longrifle style of stocks. I had some of my best successes and some of my worst failures. The results were never consistent. One thing that helped was to paint the stock with tea, yes, regular iced tea. It helped a lot on some hard maple that turned an ugly yellow color if you tried any oil finish. I finally settled on a process to use aniline dye. Here's a website that outlines the process better than any other tutorial I've seen.

http://lumberjocks.com/trifern/blog/9400 

Here's a gunstock laminated with birds eye maple, walnut and cherry. The aniline dye doesn't darken the walnut and cherry like vinegar and steel wool. 

[attachment=9733]


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## LoneStar (Aug 27, 2012)

I have been doing some studying/experimenting with these ideas too. Some things I can add; The black finish is a reaction to the vinegar and tannins. Oak is high in tannin, so your reaction was swift. 
Like Dusty said, you can first paint the wood with a strong tea for more reaction, or you can order Tannic Acid from Home Brew suppliers (used in winemaking) or through Amazon/Ebay etc. Tannic Acid is much more concentrated.
After the initial reaction, heavy buffing with Brown Tripoli will remove the black layer but should leave the black in areas that soak up more vinegar. That will usually be in the grain. A light hand sanding with 600 grit paper can be used also,
Also, you can experiment using baking soda to neutralize the reaction and stop the process.


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## Mike Jones (Aug 27, 2012)

To "weather" some oak, I used the vinegar/steel wool recipe and used it at intervals of about two hours each on test scrap pieces until I got the shades of grey that I wanted. That is, from the time that I introduced the wool to the vinegar, to the first test...two hours. then four and so on. This is a better way of controlling the effect is your goal is less than black.


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## barry richardson (Aug 28, 2012)

Lye (drano) in water does pretty much the same thing. I use it to take osage orange straight to the nice cinamon brown color and avoid the dirty yellow phase. Great for aging cherry too. Just make sure you use rubber gloves and use in a respirator, or at a minimum, a well ventilited area (outside)


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## Mike Mills (Sep 19, 2012)

I have tried the vinegar and steel wood several times with mixed results.
I finally just got leather dye (Hobby Lobby, Tandy, any crafty place) a small bottle goes a long way and works on almost everything.
For weathering oak (not ebonizing), a small air-tight tent with ammonia will weather it quickly (usually overnight at the most). This is not to ebonize only give the effect of age as in Stickley style furniture. You can look up “fuming oak” for directions.
I have never tried any method on a “blank”, only finished product. I assume the color change only goes maybe 1/32? If it does penetrate then I will give it another shot.

Reactions: Sincere 1


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