Ebonizing poplar

[Steve N]

Brian Boggs


Personally I would just paint it a flat black, gonna be on the back side of a door you may never close, unless you have kids?

[Snipe Hunter]

Does she want it stained or painted? If my wife said black, I'd assume she wanted it painted black. Black enamel and be done with it.

[CARYinWA]

I make black picture frames all the time. I use transfast black dye followed by Rustoleum Ebony gel stain. It's about as black as you can get.

[Bibliophile 13]

Stain or dye. Black leather dye like Fiebings does pretty well on wood.

[JustinTyson]

Paul K. Murphy said:

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I'm currently doing a bit of experimentation myself with steel wool/vinegar concoction.
I don't like cute, I don't do it well. I'm very mercinary in my approach to manufacturing problems. Dissolving steel wool in vinegar just seems a little (a lot) too cute for me. What I really want is a water soluble iron salt in solution.
I keep asking myself if this stuff would work: link

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Ironite is apparently just powdered iron (not soluble) and iron sucrate. Why not just buy a pure iron salt if the extremely effective method of dissolving steel wool in vinegar is too much trouble for you? Ferrous sulphate

[lostlugnut]

Sorry to all for being away.

The Customer doesn't want it painted if possible. That is the logical first thought. I don't know how to explain this, but she loves the essence of wood. The tactile feel, the grain, subtle shading differences etc. I have had some vinegar and steel wool brewing and have been testing it on some scraps I have.

The results so far...

Poplar gives some slight graying (havnt tried the tea yet).

Redwood end grain turns super black, the planed long grain turns dark gray. The red heart wood works better then the creamy sap wood.

White oak turns gray.

MDF slight graying (oops and no surprise).

I may tweak the formula a bit. I put straight steel wool into the vinegar. I am getting bubbles so it is working. I have it on a hot plate to speed things up. I may try another batch and rinse the wool in soapy water first and leave out to start to rust then put it in the vinegar.

If all else fail I may just go with Minwax ebony stain. I like to try something new with every project is the main reason for using the vinegar mix.

[Paul K. Murphy]

I love your idea.
I'm making notes.
Using steel wool and vinegar works, but the stuff you linked to is only $8.50 per pound. To me it's a no brainier.

[JustinTyson]

Let us know how it works if you give it a go. Ferrous sulphate is occasionally used by the Scandinavians to give their freshly built log cabins a gray, weathered look and a bit of decay resistance. I suspect it would be very effective for ebonizing wood.

[Paul K. Murphy]

JustinTyson said:

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Let us know how it works if you give it a go. Ferrous sulphate is occasionally used by the Scandinavians to give their freshly built log cabins a gray, weathered look and a bit of decay resistance. I suspect it would be very effective for ebonizing wood.

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So far all I've done is the steel wool/vinegar recipe.
The mix turns walnut jet black in an instant. I'm going to construct a vacuum chamber to infuse materials. I want various chemicals to get to the core. I'm talking about dyes, bleach, and reactive agents like the iron solution.
The goal is twofold:
1- Dyed veneers for marquetry
&
2- Ebonized woods

Ipe, a wood that I really want to ebonize, refuses to play ball. I got a piece of ipe that I suspect had been contaminated with iron, and it's the best imitation Ebony I've ever seen. I may have to add tannins. I'm looking into various options.
Also, if this topic interests you, I'm posting soon in the finishing forum about a Getty scientific research project regarding an Oeben table. The dyed marquetry has changed color over the years, in some cases because of iron content.

[packerguy®]

Alan S said:

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India ink makes a very black surface. I've used it on maple, and poplar should work as well.

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+1

I do it all the time with amazing results.